Bored with Board Books?
Here’s Where to Go Next

So you’ve read every board book in your personal collection (a thousand times) and exhausted the library’s collection, too.

It might be time to move on from board books, but where do you go? That picture book section is a whole lot bigger than the board books section and the selection can be overwhelming!

So many picture books are extremely text-heavy (what little one is ready to sit through a thirty-minute picture book?) or just too complicated after the ease of board books.

Here are seven tips to make the transition exciting and fun for both of you.

1. Try out picture book versions of board books. Lots of popular board books were originally full-size picture books, which means you can use familiar stories to help your child get used to the different size and more fragile pages.

2. Don’t make a hard break from board books. As you add new picture books into your rotation, make sure to keep returning to favorite board books, too. Eventually you’ll leave board books behind for good, but there’s no reason to rush it.

3. Start with books that aren’t too text-heavy. Find a few authors that write books with just a few words per page so your child doesn’t get overwhelmed. I highly recommend Jan Thomas, Jeff Mack, Mo Willems, and Lita Judge.

4. You don’t have to read every word. If the text is too much for your child (especially in nonfiction animal books, which little children tend to love for the photos but don’t necessarily have the attention span for all the text), just narrate yourself, pointing out a few interesting facts, and letting your child control the pace.

 5. Check out interactive books. Books where you can interact a lot together — instead of just sitting still for forty pages — are a great way to ease the transition. I love LMNO Peas, where your child can look for the ladybug hidden on each page, or Press Here by Hervé Tullet.

6. Try wordless books. Wordless books are fantastic because you can control how long or short the books are, and you can point out new things every time. Try Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage or anything by Barbara Lehman.

7. Visit the Easy Reader section. The Easy Reader section of the library or bookstore is designed for children just learning to read on their own, so the text is usually brief and fairly simple, plus the illustrations are designed to really help the reader understand what’s going on in the story. This makes them perfect for children just starting their journey away from board books (plus, they tend to be smaller than standard picture books, which make them easy for little hands to hold).