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Stickers, and sticker activity books in particular, are an affordable way to ease a wide range of challenging kid-related situations. Rainy day with no child care? Sticker book. Flying with a toddler? Sticker book. Stumped on what to give a friend’s third-grader? Sticker book. Need a screen-free activity to do with your too-cool teen? Sticker book — specifically one they can use for zine-making or journaling. The very best sticker books have unique artwork that draws you in and lots and lots of stickers; often, they have cleverly designed activity pages too. And most of them are cheap enough to stockpile as gifts or to have on hand in case of bad weather or a bout with the flu. To help you start an enviable sticker library, I’ve gathered 29 of the best sticker books I could find for kids from preschool to high school, many of which include activity pages to make them even more engaging.
2- to 4-year-olds
Roger Priddy’s photographic books of first words are like crack for babies and toddlers with rapidly growing vocabularies. The sticker versions of those books look the same but have added activities that introduce concepts like matching and categorizing. This animal-sticker book lets kids place animals in the correct habitats and match names to the correct animals.
If you know a budding entomologist, this spiral-bound sticker-activity book comes with over 500 bug stickers. Each spread has a page of stickers opposite a blank scene to place them in, and there are coloring pages as well.
Multiple Strategist parents recommend Melissa & Doug’s reusable sticker pads as excellent family travel companions. This set of four books gets you close to 700 stickers that can be used to dress up princesses and fairies or decorate the rooms in a house or a castle. (There are also all sorts of other designs for kids who are into farm animals, the ocean, and vehicles.) According to Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio, the stickers also work as window clings to literally change the scenery or give kids a bigger, blanker canvas.
The price (only $3!) and portability of the mini sticker books below makes up for their smaller sticker selection — each one has a manageable assortment of approximately 20 stickers, with a two-page scene to complete. My favorites include a train station you can fill with people, a dish of ice cream you can garnish with candy and fruit, and mermaids you can adorn with glittery jewels and tails; the ice cream book kept my 2-year-old riveted on a 30-minute subway ride from south Brooklyn to the Upper West Side. There are lots of other themes as well, including a petting zoo, an airport, fairies, a birthday cake, and a make-your-own pizza, and they all share a distinctive ’90s aesthetic that makes them fun for adults too.
Goldbug heads will appreciate this sweet Richard Scarry activity book with puzzles, word searches, and more that also comes with over 800 stickers.
My 2-year-old son loves Petit Collage’s combination sticker-and-coloring books, because the stickers are pretty easy for him to pick up and stick on his own, and the coloring pages are full of fun details. In addition to this monster one, we have the vehicles book and the pets book.
5- to 7-year-olds
I found this bug-themed sticker book at the Terrain store that has taken over the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens gift shop. I originally bought it as a gift for a friend’s 6-year-old daughter and liked it so much that I went back for another. My son is a bit too young to use it by himself, but he enjoys working on it with me and my husband, and especially likes that there are lots of realistic snail and worm stickers.
Photographic stickers of animals, food, and vehicles are particularly appealing to young kids because they provide a look at interesting things they might not often see in their everyday lives — like tigers or helicopters. This series of reusable sticker books was recommended to me by several fellow Strategist parents for its affordable price and ability to keep kids busy for long periods of time.
Kids obsessed with Hot Wheels will love this sticker book with over 500 stickers and tons of insider information about their favorite vehicles.
Trolio’s older daughter was gifted a Highlights subscription when she was around 4 years old, before she could read, and since she needed help to follow most of the instructions, she wound up ignoring 80 percent of each issue; instead, she’d simply skip straight to the Hidden Pictures sticker pages that she could do on her own. Then Trolio realized that you can buy Highlights sticker books devoted exclusively to search-and-find sticker puzzles, and a new household obsession was born. They are especially good for younger kids to work on independently, because they’re almost entirely visual.
Here’s another great Roger Priddy sticker-activity book, but for older kids. It has drawing prompts and lots of cute stickers, from kittens to yummy chocolates, and because of the love theme, it would make a great Valentine’s Day gift.
Trolio’s younger daughter, who is almost 7 and going through a big Barbie phase, received this book of historical Barbie stickers for Christmas. It’s organized by decade with timelines and scenes you can fill in with stickers of the dolls from each era; Trolio recommends it for any Barbie fan in the range of 6 to 10 years old.
8- to 10-year-olds
This is the most expensive book on the list because it comes with over 700 three-dimensional gem and glitter stickers. There aren’t any coloring pages or mazes; it’s just stickers. But I have tried a smaller version of the book and love how versatile it is — since the stickers are really sticky and stay where you put them, it’s a wonderful resource for decorating everything from bike helmets to printer paper to wooden toys. It also makes for a really fun birthday-party activity when paired with paper crowns, cheap sunglasses, journals, or whatever else you might want to decorate.
I discovered this weird little gem of a sticker book at the Soho Muji. Each page has a different object — lemon, mountain, moon, egg, noodles — that you use eye, nose, ears, hair, and mouth stickers to turn into a face.
Everyone should own at least a few sheets of googly-eye stickers. This sticker book combines googly eyes with realistic food stickers so you can make your own custom anthropomorphized fruits, vegetables, and loaves of bread.
Or you can get this kit from one of my favorite toy brands that lets you make surrealistic faces out of vegetable stickers.
There are lots of sticker-by-number books to choose from, and this one that focuses on vintage flower illustrations is my favorite.
Tweens and teens
Here’s a sticker book full of realistic-looking tattoos that might take some of the excitement out of getting a real tattoo — for a little while, at least.
Artsy tweens and teens will love decorating their laptops and water bottles with this book of 800 matte stickers featuring the Met’s most notable artworks, from European paintings to Ancient Greek and Roman amphoras.
Whether they’re working on a zine or simply labeling notebooks and folders, this collection of over 1,000 alphabet and punctuation stickers in a bunch of different fonts and typefaces is sure to delight most middle- and high-schoolers.
Many adults, myself included, would love to receive this book of stickers from designer and collector John Derian. The book comes with 500 highly detailed stickers from Derian’s collection of vintage imagery, including butterflies, dogs, fruit, color swatches, and even a recto verso of a cooked lobster. Its multigenerational appeal makes it a great resource for family craft time.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
