50 best lift-the-flap and pop-up books for children

Who is the cutest animal in the forest? Could it be the adorable owl, the bouncing baby bunny, the tiny mouse or someone else? The perfect gift for babies and toddlers to enjoy time and again, Who’s Cute? Will delight young readers with it’s beautiful illustrations, soft, tactile felt flaps and surprise mirror ending.

Roar, chatter, and trumpet your way through this pop-up animal adventure, designed especially for early years readers. Each pop-up scene shows a different habitat, from the African savannah to the freezing poles, and the incredible creatures that call them home. Children will love spotting the animals and learning the unique facts about each as they explore Dragan Kordic’s illustrated scenes.

Join Moomintroll as they follow Snufkin’s letters around Moominvalley and discover the surprise waiting for them at the end of Moomin Mail. See where Moominpapa has been on his travels, make Mooninmamma’s pancake recipe, and read a story written by Little My. With illustrations inspired by Tove Jansson’s classic tales and letters to read from all of your favourite Moomin characters, this beautiful interactive picture book would make a wonderful gift for a young reader in your life.

From the illustrator of classic children's book The Gruffalo, On the Farm is a bright and colourful board book with gentle rhyming text that little ones will love. Kids can join in the fun on the farm by pulling out the sliders, moving the animals and making all the different noises; quacking along with the ducks, mooing with the cows and neighing with the horses!

Buster's staying with Grandma on the farm. But where will he find the eggs for breakfast? Not in the stable – oh dear! Young children will love lifting the flaps as they turn the pages and follow Buster around the farm. This 40th anniversary special edition is a great gift for all Rod Campbell fans. 

Join the witch and all her animal friends in this magical touch and feel book, featuring all your favourite characters from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Room on the Broom. With a simple text, bright colours and touches to explore on every page, the Room on the Broom Touch and Feel Book is perfect for little hands, and is sure to keep preschool children entertained for hours.

This fun animal story is sure to delight young children, with touch-and-feel patches, flaps to lift and a surprise pop-up ending. The hungry mouse likes eating cheese, the rabbit likes carrots and the monkey likes bananas – but what about the hungry tiger? Are you brave enough to turn the page and find out? With touch-and-feel patches so you can feel mouse's ear and stroke rabbit's fur, flaps to lift and a brilliant pop-up ending. 

How many lazy lions are yawning? How many zebras are skipping? Little ones can join in the fun in the jungle by pulling out the sliders, pushing up the tabs and counting all the animals in this bright and colourful board book from much-loved illustrator Axel Scheffler.

A perfect introduction to the classic story for babies and toddlers, this chunky board book features soft fabric flaps on every page. Little ones will love discovering what’s hiding under each flap, while the bright, bold illustrations will keep them enthralled by the story again and again.

Push, pull and slide the tabs to discover the environmental heroes who are changing our world for the better. Full of fun facts and bright illustrations, this board book will teach toddlers all about Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough and others. 

This pop-up book for children is based on Rod Campbell’s classic story, Dear Zoo. With its bold, colourful illustrations and a pop-up zoo animal to discover as you turn every page, The Pop-Up Dear Zoo is sure to become a firm favourite with animal-loving little ones.

What happens when a tiny snail hitches a lift on the tail of an enormous whale? Push and pull the tabs to see them head off on an amazing journey around the world, help the snail with her big plan to save the whale after disaster strikes and he is beached in a bay, and then slide out the big tab on the last page to watch them both travel safely away – hooray!

From the creator of Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell promises bright, bold illustrations on every page with Dear Santa. A favourite Christmas book for kids, little hands can lift the flaps to discover what Father Christmas has sent, complete with a touch-and-feel surprise and a perfect present at the end! 

How will the Gruffalo celebrate his birthday? Lift the flaps to find out as you meet all your favourite characters from the deep dark wood in this brilliant board book – and look out for the surprise pop-up ending! Celebrate twenty-five years of the bestselling modern classic, this is a must-have for all Gruffalo fans.

It’s time to take a trip into the Deep, Dark Wood with this new lift-the-flap pop-up board book based on best-loved children’s tale, The Gruffalo. Young readers will love lifting the flaps to discover who the mouse meets as they journey through the wood, and spotting all of the extra details in Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s brilliant rhyming story. 

Nature loving young readers are sure to love A Little World of Ants, the brand new lift-the-flap book from Cara Rooney, the winner of  Macmillan Prize for Illustration. Packed with bright, bold illustrations and fascinating facts about how ants live, little ones with be enthralled with the adorable depictions of these intriguing insects. Perfect for young animal lovers, this book would make a brilliant gift for children aged 3-5. 

Go up, up and away in your very own rocket in Flip, Flap, Build: Rockets, a lift-the-flap story for young space fans. Join Bo and Mo as they set off on an outer space adventure and teach you lots of space facts along the way. Designed to complement the EYFS curriculum and with a guide for how parents can support their child’s learning, little explorers will love building their own rockets and rovers time and again. 

Rod Campbell's classic lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo has been a firm favourite with toddlers and parents alike ever since it was first published in 1982. Little ones will love lifting the flaps to discover which animals the zoo has sent – but will the perfect pet ever arrive? Keep little Dear Zoo fans entertained with these Dear Zoo activities for kids.

This rhyming lift-the-flap book by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb will delight children and parents alike. Little ones will giggle along as they lift the flaps and discover the naughty animals as they thwart the baby’s every activity, including a mole disrupting his breakfast, and an owl borrowing his towel!

Lift the soft fabric flaps on every page to meet all your favourite characters from the bestselling picture book, Room on the Broom – perfect for little ones for Halloween! Join the witch and all her animal friends for a magical broomstick adventure in Who's on the Broom? by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, creators of The Gruffalo.

Discover six amazing pop-up farm animals in this fun and interactive book. Young children will love finding out about all their favourite farm animals in this clever pop-up book. Just open up the book to see a different farm animal stand up in the middle of every spread. With easy to use and brilliantly satisfying pop-ups, fun facts, bright and bold illustrations and lots of favourite animals.

This brilliant picture book has wonderfully witty artwork and a giant postcard flap to lift on every page. Sunny the meerkat lives with his very large family in the Kalahari desert. One day Sunny decides it’s just too crowded and packs his bags. He visits his mongoose cousins around the world, but Sunny just doesn’t quite seem to fit in.

With six pop-up spreads depicting classic scenes from the book, including the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Alice meeting the Cheshire Cat, this pop-up book is a perfect way to introduce Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic to young readers. Fans of the original story will love spotting their favourite characters in the book’s full-colour illustrated scenes, which have been adapted from Sir John Tenniel’s original artwork.

With flaps to lift, silly scenarios and witty rhymes on every page The Christmas Bear will make little ones laugh out loud. When Father Christmas sets off to deliver presents, poor Bear is left behind, but not for long . . . Follow Bear on his travels as he chases Santa's sleigh through icy seas and snowy forests. Will he make it to Tom's house in time for Christmas morning?