Top 5 musical baby books
Our favourite musical baby books around now
Why buy them?
It’s never too early to start sharing books with your baby, and ones that play music too are even more appealing. Listening to music will give babies and toddlers pleasure and will help them to develop language skills, too. It can also strengthen cognitive and sensory development. Musical baby books often have buttons and sliders so older children can interact with the story as they turn the pages.
What to spend
As these books have musical features built-in, they cost more than your average board book for babies. Prices range generally in the £10-15 bracket, with a few that cost a little less. What they offer in terms of sensory and brain-boosting power makes them well worth the extra pennies though.
What to look for
A range of songs and tunes to stimulate and engage with, bright colours and buttons for older children to press.
Baby’s Very First Touchy-Feely Musical Playbook, £10.49, by Fiona Watt
Combining touchy-feeling textures, bright and appealing pictures and music, this book is a sensory delight for babies. Each page has a different theme from space to flowers to the seaside, and there’s a panel of different sounds to go with every page. Once your baby’s motor skills are more advanced they’ll enjoy pressing the buttons to hear their favourite sound.
My First Keyboard Book, £8.44, by Sam Taplin
This book has a keyboard attached with colour-coded notes, so even very young children can play along to classic children’s songs such as Frère Jacques, Row Row Row Your Boat and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You can read or sing the songs to your baby when they are young and they’ll gradually join in as their speech develops.
Monkey Music Magic, £12.99 by Angie Coates
This book is based on the well-known Monkey Music classes and comes with a CD of songs that you can sing along to with your child. As well as colourful illustrations, all the words from the songs are all included in the book so you can learn them. There are also tips included on how to get the best out of every song.
Baby Musical Rhymes Book, £16, VTech
This brightly coloured and interactive plastic book has a different nursery rhyme on every page, with buttons and sliders for little fingers to discover. There’s also a panel of buttons that play the nursery rhymes so you can sing along with your baby, and also enjoy the colourful and engaging illustrations.
Baby’s Bedtime Music Book, £12.99
This calming book is ideal for bedtime as it has five beautiful melodies included that will soothe and wind down your little one and have them (hopefully) ready to drop off. The story tells of the woodland animals getting ready to settle down for the night, with musical buttons to press and textures to discover.