They’ve Got Rhythm: Interactive Musical Books for Toddlers

I have been awed by the quality of the music in the Story Orchestra series — the music clips are brief but they sound so good! Moreover, the illustrations are vibrant and detailed, and the storytelling is solid. At the end of the book, there’s a short glossary alongside information about each piece.

This addition to the Story Orchestra series is another win. Detailed visuals and solid sound quality make this series hard to ignore. These aren’t board books, however, and the buttons require a strong push, so adults should be prepared to read this along with their littler ones.

Using a sideboard that features 12 jazzy concepts, styles, and various instruments, this title provides fun tunes while teaching kiddos a musical history lesson. In fact, the book comes with crucial historical context, a primer of key terms, and a suggested playlist.

Three mice attend the symphony and learn all about orchestral music, the roles of the musicians, and even themes and dynamics.

Poppy the dog and his friends star in this interactive musical adventure series. In this one, readers are swept through the streets of Venice as they attend a glorious carnival. It comes with 16 buttons that play vivid classical music by the composer Vivaldi. It’s a lovely way to introduce kiddos to the excitement of combining music and stories.

Another book in the Poppy series — this one follows Poppy and friends to the circus where they discover the sounds of brass and percussion instruments. The other two books in this series include Poppy and the Orchestra and Poppy and Mozart.

Allegro is sick of practicing the boring ol’ piano. He has a bit of a grumpy fit and then is magically whisked away on an adventure that introduces him to the music he’s never heard before, including “Claire de Lune” and “New World Symphony”. All in all, the musical excerpts are a decent length, and the message that music helps us to understand and express ourselves is a lovely one.

This sound book features instrumental versions of popular children’s songs like “Ants Go Marching,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” and many others. The art is bright and super cute, and it has all been packaged in a hardy board book format.

This board book features eight bilingual songs presented by Nick Jr.’s Canticos characters. Each page spread is split with one side of lyrics in English and the other side written in Spanish. Features eight popular children’s songs such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider/La Araña Chiquitita” and “Little Chickies/Los Pollitos”.

This simple board book features ten instrument sounds, allowing kids to control playing the guitar, harp, flute, drums, piano, and more.

Trying to lull your littles into bed? These instrumental versions of sleepy lullabies are paired with comfortingly cozy imagery, and they’ll probably make bedtime a whole lot easier. Songs include “Day Is Done,” “Twinkle, Twinkle,” “Hush Little Baby,” “I See the Moon,” and six others.

Adorable animal musicians are going to their favourite café for a friend’s birthday surprise. In short, this features flute, guitar, violin, and piano in an exciting celebration of what makes birthdays so fun.

This has slightly altered versions of popular kids’ songs. “Hairy Had a Little Llama” for “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, for instance. Hilarious but be warned — “Baby Shark” is included and you know that will be played on repeat.

Kids will love the fun, simple art of penguins, elephants, hippos, turtles, and more. An introduction to the concept of an orchestra, the text covers instruments like the violin, the tuba, and drums. The speaker along the side means that the buttons can be easily pressed individually and together, allowing kids to bring the music into a rousing, unanimous concert.

This features ten instrumental versions of songs like “The Grand Ol’ Duke of York,” “Oh! Susanna,” and “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.”

It can be Christmas every day with this seasonal sound book. Unlike the others and their traditional sound buttons, this one has a pretty rad windup music mechanism that will remind you of a music box.

Saint-Saens’s “Carnival of the Animals” accompanies delightfully vibrantly expressive illustrations of elephants stomping, fish swimming and even fossils dancing in the ground. As a bonus, the board book comes with a QR code so kids can listen to the music online.

This book features a variety of music types, showcasing styles like the waltz, tango, Charleston, salsa, rock ‘n’ roll, and hip-hop.