Gideon's Picks for the Best Interactive Books

My four year old son, Gideon has a love for interactive books that have things in addition to the wonderful stories offered within. Here's a listing of some of his favorites.

Doors By Roxie Munro

I had spied this book on the crowed shelves of our library and thought it looked like something Gideon would like. I saw it was a lift the flap book (his favorite kind of book) and didn't go any further. I checked it out and we came home. When we got home Gideon was eager to look at his book (as he always is when he gets a new book from the library.) He flopped on the floor by the door and began to look at it. I looked down in amazement. This book is one of the most cleaver ones I've seen. Each page includes a door and a riddle of items to look for in the page. The child then opens the door and spies inside multiple flaps inside each door looking for the various items. The illustrations are detailed, colorful and engaging. Every time we read this book we are finding something new that we hadn't seen last time. My son loved this book so much that he asked for his own copy, which I gladly ordered up off of Amazon. It was one of the best book investments I've made for him in a long time.

The Cheerios Play book and The Cheerios Animal Play book by Lee Wade

There are actually two different Cheerios Play books out there, we own both versions. The regular Cheerios Play book was in a big bin of books that members of the family had given to us after their children had outgrown them. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was fun, it was educational, and it was tasty (assuming your child eats the Cheerios after each page like mine does.) Each page shows an illustration with Cheerios drawn in, however, there are missing Cheerios in the pages. Your child is to fill the missing Cheerios in with their own in the indented spots. These books give new meaning to the concept of playing with your food.

When I found another version of this play book dedicated to animals I immediately grabbed it. Now Gideon has double the tasty Cheerios fun!

The Treasure Of Pirate Island (A Fisher-Price Lift-The-Flap Play book) by Matt Mitter

This was another book in that hand-me-down container of books. It's also one of Gideon's favorites. This is a cute story about a pirate crew in search of treasure. There's bright, cute, illustrations and over 40 lift up flaps to explore. One page even sends you on the treasure hunt to follow the clues under each flap until you find the treasure - a chest full of candies!

Dora Music Player Storybook by Christine Ricci

This book was bought on our last trip to the bookstore. Little Gideon has developed a strong like for Dora, and he just had to have this cute novelty book.

The book is a sturdy hardcover edition with four different lavishly illustrated stories. It also includes a toy CD player and four CDs with a total of 24 Spanish and English songs on them. The stories include cues for your child to play a specific song in the CD player (which either can attach to the side of the book or can be removed for on the go play) to go along with the story. Selected lyrics at the end of each story are printed in both Spanish and English. A cute and fun concept that my son just adores.

There are many more wonderful interactive books out there, sadly there's not enough room to list them all here. However, here's a few other books that are favorites in our house, and they might just become favorites in yours, too.

Spot. The Spot series of books by Eric Hill are favorites around here. How could you not love that little dog?

I Spy. The I Spy series of books are favorites for some of the same reasons that Doors is a favorite. Looking through the pages for the items is always fun, and you always see something new that you missed the time before.

Do your children have some favorites that you'd like to recommend to us for Gideon? We are always looking for new, and wonderful books to read! What ever books you choose, reading and the time spent bonding over reading is always a wonderful mind enriching experience.