15 Best Interactive Picture Books for Kids Who Want In on the Story

Some books want children to sit quietly and listen.

These books have other plans.

Push this.

Shake that.

Turn the page.

NO, DON'T TURN THE PAGE!

Make a scary face.

Tell the pigeon no.

High-five an animal.

Find the thing the narrator somehow cannot see.

And occasionally rescue somebody who has been swallowed by the book itself.

Now we're reading.

If you're new around here, I'm Jungle Jimmy the Book Explorer, children's author, dad, and longtime performer for kids. Readit the Book Worm is my childlike sidekick, and interactive books are dangerous territory for him because he considers every instruction legally binding.

"Shake the book?"

Yes.

"How hard?"

That's exactly what I'm worried about.

After thirty years performing for kids, I've learned that participation changes attention.

A child who was drifting five seconds ago suddenly has a job.

That's what I wanted from this list.

Not books where participation is a little extra decoration.

Books where the child feels like they helped make the story happen.

That's the ranking rule here, and it's worth saying out loud: I ranked these by how necessary the child's participation feels, not by whether the text happens to contain instructions.

Quick Picks

• Best Overall: Press Here
• Best Page-Turning Game: The Monster at the End of This Book
• Best Shout-Back Book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
• Best Forbidden Button: Don't Push the Button!
• Best Shake-the-Monster Book: There's a Monster in Your Book
• Best Full-Body Competition: High Five
• Best Get-Out-of-Your-Seat Book: Can You Make a Scary Face?
• Best Interactive Nature Book: Tap the Magic Tree
• Best Finger-Following Book: Don't Touch This Book!
• Best Use of the Actual Book: This Book Just Ate My Dog!
• Best Interactive Color Book: Mix It Up!
• Best Escalating Chaos: Warning: Do Not Open This Book!
• Best Crocodile-in-the-Book Problem: Open Very Carefully
• Best Movement Book: From Head to Toe
• Best Spot-What-the-Narrator-Missed Book: This Book Is Not for You

1. Best Overall: Press Here

By Hervé Tullet

Three dots.

A white page.

No batteries.

No flaps.

No sound chip.

And somehow Hervé Tullet convinces a child that pressing, shaking, tilting and clapping controls what happens next.

Chronicle sets it up exactly that way: press the yellow dot, follow the instructions, and watch the dots multiply, move and change as the pages turn. It's 56 pages, aimed at ages 3 to 5, and it has been the longest-running picture book on the New York Times bestseller list.

The trick is beautifully simple.

Instruction.

Action.

Page turn.

Result.

Again.

A kid presses something, turns the page, and the book behaves as though it noticed.

Of course it didn't.

Readit?

"It did."

It's paper.

"You don't know."

Fine.

That's the magic.

Tullet understands that the tiny pause between doing the action and turning the page is where the whole thing lives.

Why it works: The reader's action feels necessary.

Best for: Ages 3 to 5, preschool storytime, classrooms, kids who like cause and effect, and grown-ups who want interactivity with no pieces to lose.

2. Best Page-Turning Game: The Monster at the End of This Book

By Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin

Grover does not want you to turn the page.

There's a monster at the end of the book.

He knows this because he read the title.

Reasonable.

So he begs.

He builds barriers.

He ties things down.

He does everything he can think of.

The reader keeps turning pages.

What makes this interactive isn't touching a printed button.

It's responsibility.

You are causing Grover's problem.

Every page turn ignores him.

That hands even a very young child a ridiculous amount of power, and Grover's escalating reactions make the next page almost impossible to resist.

Why it works: Turning the page becomes part of the plot.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Monster at the End of This Book review here.

Best for: Preschoolers, Sesame Street fans, reluctant listeners, and children who enjoy doing exactly what they've been told not to do.

3. Best Shout-Back Book: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

By Mo Willems

The bus driver has one request.

Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus.

Then he leaves.

Pigeon starts negotiating.

He begs.

He pleads.

He keeps trying.

And the child gets the best job in the room:

NO!

Mo Willems doesn't need buttons or flaps because Pigeon talks straight at you. His face changes. His tactics change. His patience disappears.

The reader isn't observing the argument.

They're in it.

That's interactive storytelling at its simplest.

And loudest.

Why it works: Kids become the authority figure.

Belly Laugh Scale: 5/5, Laugh-Out-Loud Legend

Read the full Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! review here.

Best for: Ages 3 to 5, classrooms, group read-alouds, dramatic readers, and children with strong opinions about unauthorized bus operation.

4. Best Forbidden Button: Don't Push the Button!

By Bill Cotter

Larry has a button.

There is one rule.

Don't push it.

I think we all know how this is going to go.

Larry warns the reader away from the button, then eventually gives permission for one quick push while nobody is looking. Things immediately go wrong.

That's a good interactive engine, because the kid isn't simply following instructions.

First they're resisting temptation.

Then they're breaking the rule.

Then they have to deal with what they apparently caused.

Bill Cotter's big, expressive Larry keeps the whole thing direct. There's very little distance between monster and reader.

Larry needs you.

Mostly because Larry has made some questionable decisions about button access.

Why it works: Temptation turns touching the page into a story event.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, mischievous kids, preschool and kindergarten read-alouds, and anyone who has ever seen a large red button and immediately needed to know what it does.

5. Best Shake-the-Monster Book: There's a Monster in Your Book

By Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Greg Abbott

There's a monster in your book.

Get him out.

Shake it.

Wiggle it.

Spin it.

Tilt it.

Tom Fletcher keeps handing the reader new ways to chase Greg Abbott's little monster around until the situation changes.

He's out.

Uh-oh.

Penguin Random House lists it at 32 pages for ages 3 to 7, with a Lexile of 400L, and it opens the Who's In Your Book? series. The publisher describes the arc as taking children from excited, noisy and wiggly to calm and steady, which is the part I'd point out to anybody using this at bedtime.

Because the participation changes the mood.

At first we're trying to get rid of the monster.

Then we have to think about how we're treating him.

Greg Abbott makes that turn work, because the monster's face tells kids what he's feeling without needing a paragraph to explain it.

Action first.

Then empathy sneaks in.

Why it works: Physical play actually moves the emotional story.

Best for: Ages 3 to 7, monster fans, bedtime readers who still have wiggles left, and kids who enjoy shaking books more than libraries generally encourage.

6. Best Full-Body Competition: High Five

By Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

You have entered a high-five competition.

Apparently there is training involved.

Stretching.

Technique.

Practice.

Focus.

Nobody told me high-fiving had this much infrastructure.

Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri turn the reader into the contestant and run a series of increasingly goofy challenges toward the big competition. Dial published the 64-page book for ages 3 to 5 with a Lexile of 590L, and it went to number one on the New York Times list.

This is one I'd especially enjoy performing, because the adult doesn't have to manufacture participation.

The book already built it in.

Hold it up.

Let the kid slap the page.

Reset.

Go again.

Daniel Salmieri gives the animals enormous personality, so the high fives feel like meetings with opponents rather than random handprints.

Why it works: Participation becomes competition.

Best for: Ages 3 to 6, active kids, Dragons Love Tacos fans, group reading, and children who believe every activity improves once somebody declares a championship.

7. Best Get-Out-of-Your-Seat Book: Can You Make a Scary Face?

By Jan Thomas

A ladybug starts giving orders.

Stand up.

Sit down.

Make a face.

Dance.

There's a bug in your shirt.

Things deteriorate from there.

Simon & Schuster describes Jan Thomas's book as an interactive story where children make scary faces, leap out of their seats and do the chicken dance while dealing with a bossy little ladybug and a giant hungry frog. Thomas wrote and illustrated it.

This is not a book for calming everybody down.

Important distinction.

If you have twelve preschoolers and you need them quietly horizontal in eight minutes, perhaps don't unleash the chicken dance.

But if you need participation?

Excellent.

Jan Thomas uses huge expressions and bold shapes that read clearly across a room, which matters when the book is asking the audience to perform with it.

Why it works: The child's whole body becomes part of storytime.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, preschool groups, library storytime, active kids, and adults prepared to lose control of the room temporarily.

8. Best Interactive Nature Book: Tap the Magic Tree

By Christie Matheson

One bare tree.

Tap it.

A leaf appears.

Tap again.

More leaves.

Then come blossoms, apples, falling leaves, snow, and spring.

Christie Matheson wrote and illustrated the 40-page Greenwillow book, which came out in 2013, and she takes the basic action-and-page-turn idea and uses it to walk children through an entire year. Readers tap, rub, jiggle, shake and clap, and the tree changes.

This one's quieter than High Five or Can You Make a Scary Face?

That's useful.

Interactive doesn't have to mean everybody is now standing on furniture.

The child still has a job. The rhythm is just calmer.

Matheson's collage-and-watercolor tree keeps the visual focus simple enough that every change matters.

Why it works: Participation reveals a real natural cycle.

Best for: Ages 3 to 8, seasons units, bedtime, preschool classrooms, and kids who like magic without monsters escaping into the bedroom.

9. Best Finger-Following Book: Don't Touch This Book!

By Bill Cotter

Larry is back.

This time:

Don't touch the book.

Fine.

Well.

Maybe one finger.

Larry gradually lets the reader touch the page, then leads them through an interactive adventure while the book seems to react. Sourcebooks lists the 32-page hardcover for ages 4 to 8.

I put this just below Don't Push the Button! because the original button has the cleaner comic setup.

But Don't Touch This Book! gives the kid more variety.

The interaction keeps changing.

The reader has to pay attention.

And Larry remains a very good character for this, because he reacts directly to whatever the kid just "did."

Why it works: The instructions keep changing, so participation doesn't go on autopilot.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full Don't Touch This Book! review here.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, active listeners, kids who like following increasingly silly instructions, and Larry fans.

10. Best Use of the Actual Book: This Book Just Ate My Dog!

By Richard Byrne

Bella is walking her dog across the page.

The dog disappears into the middle of the book.

That seems bad.

More characters go in after him.

They disappear too.

Richard Byrne wrote and illustrated it. Henry Holt published the 32-page book in 2014 for ages 3 to 6, and Bella eventually works out that the physical book itself has become the problem.

This is the kind of interactive idea I like, because it couldn't work the same way in any other format.

The gutter, that fold running down the middle of the book, becomes part of the story world.

The object in your hands is misbehaving.

Now the reader has to help.

The Horn Book put it better than I can: an illustrator's job is to keep the important parts of a picture book out of the gutter, and this book is a superbly self-aware example of what not to do.

Why it works: The physical construction of a picture book becomes the joke.

Best for: Ages 3 to 7, kids who like visual tricks, inventive read-alouds, and anyone suspicious that books may be eating household pets.

11. Best Interactive Color Book: Mix It Up!

By Hervé Tullet

Hervé Tullet again.

This time the reader gets paint.

Not real paint.

Parents may continue breathing.

Tap colors.

Rub them.

Mix them.

Turn the page.

Something has changed.

Chronicle published it in 2014 for ages 3 to 5, and the whole book is an interactive exploration of color mixing where children follow simple instructions and watch colors combine, splatter, appear and vanish.

This is one of those books where the educational part doesn't need a separate announcement.

Put yellow and blue together.

What happens?

Turn the page.

There it is.

The kid has already run the experiment, in their head and with their hands.

Why it works: The interaction teaches color theory by pretending the reader mixed the paint.

Best for: Ages 3 to 5, art classrooms, preschool, color learning, and parents who would like to discuss paint without later finding it on the dog.

Read the full Mix It Up! review here.

12. Best Escalating Chaos: Warning: Do Not Open This Book!

By Adam Lehrhaupt, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe

Don't open the book.

You opened it.

Now there are monkeys.

Keep going and it gets worse.

Eventually the reader has helped release a great deal of trouble and has to help put things right.

Simon & Schuster confirms it as an E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor Book and an ALA Notable Children's Book, and points out that Matthew Forsythe is an Eisner Award-winning comic artist.

That matters here, because the pages get visually messier as the animals take over. The chaos isn't merely described.

It spreads.

The reader sees what their continued disobedience has done.

Excellent.

Why it works: Every page turn feels like another bad decision.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, monkey fans, rule breakers, classroom read-alouds, and kids who respond to a warning by immediately investigating the forbidden object.

13. Best Crocodile-in-the-Book Problem: Open Very Carefully

By Nick Bromley, illustrated by Nicola O'Byrne

You're settling in with The Ugly Duckling.

Then a crocodile gets into the book.

Wrong book, crocodile.

He starts eating things.

Including his way through the pages.

Nosy Crow's 32-page interactive story uses die-cut holes as the crocodile tries to chew his way out, and it won the Picture Book category of the 2014 Waterstones Children's Book Prize. The judges called it a book that delights young readers by breaking all the rules, from changing the story's direction to literally tearing holes in the pages.

The full US title is Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite, which tells you what you're getting.

I like it because the damage looks physical.

Holes.

Chewed pages.

The child isn't being asked to imagine that the book is an object inside the story.

They're holding the evidence.

Nicola O'Byrne lets the design carry a lot of the storytelling.

Why it works: Physical page features make the pretend danger feel wonderfully real.

Best for: Ages 2 to 5, crocodile kids, visual-joke fans, and readers who enjoy books behaving improperly.

14. Best Movement Book: From Head to Toe

By Eric Carle

Penguin turns his head.

Can you?

Giraffe bends her neck.

Can you?

Elephant stomps.

You know what's coming.

Eric Carle's 1997 picture book asks children to imitate a parade of animal movements, working down the body from head to toe.

This one isn't built around surprise like Press Here.

It's built around imitation and confidence.

Animal does something.

Child tries.

"I can do it."

Again.

Publishers Weekly noted at the time that children would clap, stomp, kick and wriggle their way through the book, which is about right.

Carle's big collage animals make every movement readable at a glance.

Simple idea.

Still works.

Why it works: Reading and moving become the same activity.

Best for: Ages 3 to 6, preschool movement breaks, body-part learning, Eric Carle fans, and children who had no intention of sitting through storytime anyway.

15. Best Spot-What-the-Narrator-Missed Book: This Book Is Not for You

By Howard Pearlstein, illustrated by Susanna Covelli

The narrator insists this book contains nothing a kid would like.

No cool stuff.

No funny stuff.

No monsters.

No ninjas.

No aliens.

Susanna Covelli's pictures have other information.

The narrator is completely unaware of the funny, gross, cool, cute and silly things happening around him while the illustrations contradict everything he says.

That's a different kind of interactivity.

The child doesn't need to tap anything.

They need to notice.

The words say one thing.

The pictures say another.

Now the kid has something to shout about.

"No! LOOK BEHIND YOU!"

Exactly.

Why it works: The reader knows something the narrator doesn't.

Belly Laugh Scale: 4/5, Big-Time Belly Laughs

Read the full This Book Is Not for You review here.

Best for: Ages 4 to 8, visual readers, kids who love finding hidden jokes, reluctant listeners, and children who enjoy correcting grown-ups.

What Makes a Picture Book Truly Interactive?

I don't think an instruction automatically makes a book interactive.

"Clap your hands."

Fine.

But does anything happen because I clapped?

The best books on this list create a loop.

The book asks.

The child acts.

Something changes.

The child believes, for one lovely second, that they did it.

Press Here is brilliant at that.

So is The Monster at the End of This Book, even though its only mechanical interaction is turning pages.

Grover reacts because you turned the page.

Pigeon reacts because you said no.

Bella needs you because her book has developed an appetite.

That connection is the good stuff.

Interactive Doesn't Always Mean Touching

Worth separating out, because parents searching for interactive books are often looking for very different experiences.

There are touch-and-move books like Press Here, Don't Push the Button! and Mix It Up!

There are body books like High Five, Can You Make a Scary Face? and From Head to Toe.

There are talk-back books like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

There are page-turning games like The Monster at the End of This Book and Warning: Do Not Open This Book!

And there are visual participation books, where the child has to catch something the narrator missed.

That last category matters.

A kid pointing at a picture and yelling:

"THERE IT IS!"

is participating.

Nobody needs to print a button.

Another one worth knowing in that category is Definitely Do Not Open This Book, which runs the same do-not-do-this engine as Larry's books with a very insistent monster doing the arguing.

Which One Should You Start With?

For a preschooler, I'd start with Press Here.

For the kid who wants to shout, Pigeon.

For the kid who wants to move, Can You Make a Scary Face? or From Head to Toe.

For the kid who loves monsters, Grover or There's a Monster in Your Book.

For art and color, Mix It Up!

For a child who loves breaking rules, Larry or Warning: Do Not Open This Book!

For a kid who likes finding things adults missed, This Book Is Not for You.

And if you're reading to a group?

Pick the book based on how much chaos you're prepared to create.

This is an important professional consideration.

Interactive Books and Reluctant Readers

This is also where interactive picture books earn their keep with a child who says books are boring.

Don't start by demanding that they admire the story.

Give them a job.

Push this.

Find that.

Tell Pigeon no.

Shake the monster.

Catch the narrator being wrong.

Now the book isn't asking the child to sit outside the experience.

They're in.

That doesn't solve every reading difficulty, and I wouldn't pretend it does. If the words themselves are hard, that's a different problem and it needs a different answer.

But for a child whose problem is interest, participation changes the invitation.

"Would you like me to read you a book?"

Maybe not.

"Can you stop this pigeon from stealing a bus?"

Different offer.

That's the whole argument behind my list of books for reluctant readers, and several of these titles appear there too.

One Book I'm Keeping Outside the Ranking

I'm not ranking my own book against Hervé Tullet, Mo Willems, Jon Stone and everybody else up there.

That would be a little convenient.

But Look! There Are No Dinos Inside Of This Book belongs in this conversation.

Dangerous Dave insists there are no dinosaurs.

The pictures disagree.

The kid can see what Dave misses.

So the participation isn't:

Press here.

It's:

DAVE! THERE'S A DINOSAUR RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

That's the kind of interactivity I especially like, because the child isn't merely obeying an instruction.

They're catching the book in the act.

Readit?

"Dave really can't see them?"

Apparently not.

"They're dinosaurs."

I know.

"They're big."

I know.

"Is Dave okay?"

Different article.

Final Explorer Verdict

If I could keep only one book from this list to explain what interactive picture books can do, I'd keep Press Here.

Nothing pops up.

Nothing lights up.

There's no electronic trick.

The book simply makes an agreement with the child.

Do this.

Turn the page.

Look what happened.

And the child agrees to believe it.

That's play.

That's imagination.

And, conveniently, it's also reading.

The other great books here find different ways into the same room.

Grover makes page turning naughty.

Pigeon starts an argument.

Larry hands the kid a forbidden button.

Bella turns the book itself into the problem.

Eric Carle gets everybody moving.

Howard Pearlstein and Susanna Covelli make the kid smarter than the narrator.

Different tricks.

Same result.

The child isn't waiting for the story to happen.

They're helping.

Readit?

"Can I press the yellow dot again?"

Sure.

"Then shake it?"

Sure.

"Then high-five the book?"

Different book.

"I can combine them."

This is why interactive books need adult supervision.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit