A parent’s guide to the best books for one-year-olds

Looking for a book that your little one will love? Ladybird's Baby Touch: Peekaboo is an absolute winner! This engaging tactile playbook from the innovative Baby Touch range is perfect for babies and toddlers. Enjoy fun interactions with different textures and play peekaboo with the large flaps. The bright, bold illustrations are designed to captivate your baby’s attention.

The Ladybird Baby Touch series is an ideal way to introduce your child to books and the world around them. Encouraging interaction and play, these books are entertaining for both the youngest babies and toddlers.

Review: “This book is a firm favourite with my one-year-old. It's big, full of bright cartoons with a large flap to lift on every right-hand page and loads of other textures to explore. I love the style of the artwork and the colours used throughout really call baby's attention.”

This highly-rated sound book boasts a 4.8-star rating from over 1,300 Amazon customers! Jungle Sounds is sure to become your little one's favourite. With realistic sounds and simple text, it brings the jungle to life! Children can press the buttons on the pages to hear the sounds of a roaring tiger, singing tropical birds, and a noisy orangutan that isn’t quite ready for bed. The colourful pages depict the jungle at night and the sunrise, all with delightful illustrations and fun cut-out shapes to discover.

Review: “My 19-month-old absolutely adores this book! He eagerly reaches for it so we can read together. He loves mimicking the tiger’s roar and flipping through the pages. It’s a fantastic way to introduce animals—his eyes light up with every sound!"

The Usborne "First Sounds" Collection is a delightful set of interactive sound books designed for young children. This collection includes four themed books: Farm Sounds, Garden Sounds, Zoo Sounds, and Wild Animal Sounds. Each book brings environments to life with charming sound effects like cows mooing, birds tweeting, lions roaring, and wolves howling. With vibrant illustrations, simple text, peek-through holes, and fingertrails on each page, these books are crafted to engage curious little ones and introduce them to the natural world in a fun, sensory way.

Titles in the set:

1. Farm Sounds
2. Garden Sounds
3. Zoo Sounds
4. Wild Animals Sounds

Review: "My toddler absolutely adores this sound book collection! We started with Jungle Sounds and it was such a hit that I knew he’d love the rest. The sounds are realistic, not too loud, and perfectly timed, capturing his attention every time. The variety of themes—farm, garden, zoo, and wild animals—keeps him entertained and learning something new with each book. The peek-through holes and fingertrails add a tactile element that’s great for his age. It’s a wonderful way to introduce nature sounds to young children, and it’s held up well to lots of use. Highly recommend!"

Indestructibles: Baby, Let's Eat! makes storytime enjoyable without the worry of ripped pages, as it’s designed to be tear-proof, bite-proof, and spit-proof, combining the lightweight feel of a paperback with the durability of a board book. This delightful book introduces babies to colourful foods through engaging questions like “What green vegetable looks like a tree? Broccoli!” and “Can you find a small, yellow fruit? Lemon!” Perfect for little ones who "read" with their hands and mouths, Indestructibles features bright pictures and minimal text, encouraging interactive reading and exploration.

Review: “I was looking for a book for my little foodie who eats everything—including books! This one is perfect. It features her favourite foods and stands up to her pulling and biting, so we still have a book left to enjoy!”

The classic story of a very hungry caterpillar, who literally eats his way through the book. This book remains a favourite through the generations with its attractive colours and interesting textures. It's one that'll certainly keep your 12-month-old entertained.

Review: "Every child enjoys this story and the little board book is ideal for small children - much harder to damage too! Brought for a present and was very appreciated."

This book is the perfect first birthday gift because it’s more than just a story—it’s a keepsake that grows with your child. Even before they can read, they’ll love seeing their name throughout the pages. As they grow, they’ll appreciate the special story made just for them, making it a beautiful way to help them discover their name and the amazing qualities it represents. Built to last with durable pages, this personalised book makes for a meaningful, unique gift that’s as special as they are.

Review: "Wonderbly never disappoints, but I have to say this one is my favourite! The way my little one’s name is spelled out with meaning for each letter is so special. The illustrations and the tale that comes with it are so engaging. This would make a perfect gift for special occasions, and it’s built to last a lifetime. It’s perfect for displaying in a mini-library, and I love that you can personalise how your little one looks so they can truly see themselves as the main character."

A book that has been a firm favourite with parents and toddlers for years, Dear Zoo is an interactive flap book that your tot will love. Lifting up the flap to see which animal is behind each door, will they ever manage to find the perfect pet as they discover the different animals the zoo has sent?

Review: "Lovely book, my baby loves lifting the flaps. The gold for the anniversary edition is a lovely touch."

Featuring all your little one's favourite characters from the deep dark wood, these bold and bright books will help them to learn about colours, numbers and animals. These miniature Gruffalo books will fit perfectly on their bookshelf and one they can fit in their nursery bag as they get older.

Review: "Just right for little fingers this great Gruffalo Library is ideal for any toddlers’ bookshelf - a superb set of super books and four great titles for learning and enjoying."

If you are looking for a personalised book to add to your baby’s bookshelf, then you might what to check Wonderbly. It makes reading extra special. It’s a personalised book featuring your little one’s name. This delightful story puts them at the centre of the adventure, making reading more exciting and meaningful! Perfect for one-year-olds, we love Mummy’s Magic Hugs for You. It beautifully captures the loving moments shared between a child and their mummy.

Review: “This personalised book is a fantastic addition to my son's bookshelf! It features vibrant illustrations and simple, heartfelt text that perfectly portrays the special bond between a mother and her child. As a mum, I deeply resonate with the touching words and images that convey a mother’s love. Plus, I love that I could personalise the hair and eye colour, skin tone, and even add a picture on the dedication page!”

From the creator of Dear Zoo, this is another interactive flap book that will keep them engaged. Follow Buster around the farm and help him find the eggs for his breakfast in Oh Dear! Children will love the bold artwork, and the chunky book makes it easier for little hands to hold.

Review: "Great book for my 8-month-old - lots of flaps and he loves reading it."

Full of pictures, objects to name and simple questions that are perfect for your curious toddler. Encourage them to ask questions and talk about the world around them using 'Let's Get Talking' to help them to identify the objects, characters and creatures they'll come into contact with along the way.

Review: "My 18-month-old grandson absolutely loves this book. He especially loves the vehicles page which he keeps asking to look at! Whilst not yet saying much, his ability to recognise the images is rapidly improving. Lovely pictures and easy for little hands to turn pages. Highly recommend."

'Where Is My Belly Button' is a fun way to teach young children about different body parts and self-awareness. They'll love pointing out where the baby's eyes, nose and hands are. Soon enough, they'll be able to point to where they are on their own body, too.

Review: "This book is great! My toddler enjoys it every time we read this together. I have been reading this to her ever since she was a baby. She’s almost 2 now but gets really excited when she sees this book. She has also learned about her body parts using this cute little book so if you want to make your child learn something at a very early age, I would definitely recommend."

The felt flaps in this book will withstand enthusiastic toddlers! They'll love trying to find the friendly pets hiding on each page. They might even come across some animals that they're familiar with if they have pets in their household as well. Find Mr Dog, Mrs Rabbit and baby, too.

Review: "Lovely book, the flaps are good quality. My daughter has pulled them many times and they still look like new. Great colours, my daughter is absolutely in love with this book!"

Spot is a timeless classic. In the book, puppy Spot has gone missing at dinner time and Mummy dog, Sally, must find him. This book is part of a collection of many stories about Spot’s adventures that are a part of pretty much everyone’s childhood.

Review: "Absolutely love this book. Beautifully illustrated and feeds the appetite of curiosity of young children as they lift the flaps to see what’s there. Start young and it will grow with them."

This colourful book supports your little one in learning their first words. From dog, to ball and car, the words are hidden behind flaps that children can interact with and learn from. Support their speech by repeating the words in a fun and engaging way, and surprising them with the words hidden under the flaps.

Review: "I bought the set of three books ‘Babies Love’ for my granddaughter. She loves them, they are sturdy very colourful and each page inside folds open relating to the opposite page. They have been used non-stop since she received them and still loves to read them an ideal educational book that is fun. She is 17 months and I can see these will be used for a long time yet."

Another great book to support with their speech and development, first words books are really important in teaching little ones. The lift-up flaps are big enough for your tot to grab too, and it's a fun, vibrant way to teach them their first words.

Review: "My son got a copy of this when he was 13 months old. A year later it's still his favourite book. At first he liked me pointing at the pictures and naming them, and now that he's learning to talk he does it himself and even makes up little stories about them. I especially like how the last page is all about bedtime because it makes it easy to convince him to brush his teeth and get his blanket and teddy ready, just like in the book. We like this book so much that we just bought a copy for his cousin's first birthday!"

This is the story of Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare and how it’s impossible to measure how much you love your little one. A great story to read to your tot with a big cuddle at the end, this book is all about the unbreakable bond of familial love.

Review: "My baby loves this book as I do the actions. A very cute nighttime book. You can also buy a rattle version of the bunny which we were given."

Touch and tickle the textures with your baby and help them to learn about different animals. From soft, cuddly kittens to the scales of lizards, they'll love learning about the world around them as they read this book. 'Baby Touch and Feel: Animals' is a reactive and sensory journey to take your little one along on.

Review: "My daughter loves it, nice features like the chimpanzee with hair. Cute for babies 4 months to 18 maybe."

This delightful book will introduce classic nursery rhymes that little ones will love listening to and singing along with. These nursery rhymes are a great way at introducing them to speech as well as music. It includes lift-up flaps, along with touch and feel patches for a sensory experience too.

Review: "This is one of my 16 months old's favourite books. He loves listening to the music while i sing the rhymes....the words are written in the book so it doesn't matter if you are not familar with all the songs. He loves pressing the buttons too. Nice bright pictutes which capture his attention and cut out/raised details too."