How can you ensure your little lovebug is reading or being read to enough? Recent studies have found that only 60% of middle-class families read to their children on a daily basis, with the percentage dropping to 34% among lower-income families. The reasons behind these low numbers are simple — many families simply can’t afford new books, or the parents lack the time or funds to get to a public library. That’s where this list of best children’s book subscription boxes come into play.
Not only do these boxes offer a kit for just about any price range (with some starting at just $10 a month), they also work on a monthly to yearly subscription basis. Ranging in ages and topics, these clubs will help boost your baby’s brain power and encourage more meaningful bonding time between the two of you. Plus, no library card or stressful runs to Barnes and Noble are required.
But First, Why Read?
It seems like a silly question. Parents know kids should read. But there are some important facts backing up that understanding.
Most of a child’s brain is developed by the age of three, which makes fostering healthy cognitive development imperative within the first few years of your child’s life. However, that doesn’t have to be as serious, or laborious, as it sounds. Simply reading to your child for a few hours a week can help boost this brain development through increased language understanding, playful imagination building, and heightened vocabulary and sentence construction. In addition, reading helps to encourage “mimicking” among babies, which is the simple act of responding to and engaging with their baby babbles.
“Reading to young children is an easy and obvious way to expose them to language. It expands their vocabularies—you don’t have to go to the zoo, for instance, to talk about camels and elephants,” Lydia Denworth wrote in Psychology Today. “Furthermore, the rhythm, repetition and rhyme of children’s books helps lay down the neural networks kids need for reading and literacy later in life.”
Literati
One of the first book clubs for kids that let you “try before you buy,” Literati delivers five books per month that are geared specifically to your child’s age. The books are sourced from authors all over the world and are curated around a specific theme (i.e. adventure, history, mathematics, science, and art). Like a virtual library, you’re given a week to decide whether to keep or return the books and each box comes with a pre-paid return package.
Costing just $9.95 to get started, the club offers the best titles for kids at a price that even rivals Amazon.
My First Reading Club
Targeted more specifically towards the younger readers, My First Reading Club offers five different subscription options based on your child’s age range (from 0 – 12 years old). Each box includes books specifically for your little one – whether that’s a selection of board books for babies to riveting chapter novels for the older readers. Plus, each box boasts one activity book as well, aimed at boosting literacy, and a gift for mom.
It’s one of the most affordable on the list, at only $9.99 per month, making it one of the best children’s book subscription boxes available.
Owl Post Books
Created by book lovers who wanted to provide high-quality books that were both fun and budget-friendly, Owl Post Books offer a range of different subscriptions based on your little reader — from the standard Book of the Month Club to the Imagination Box. Like some of the others listed, the Book of the Month Club delivers one new book (that’s geared towards ages 0-3, 4-7 or 8-11) while the Imagination Box offers three books, a toy or craft, and an interactive activity box per month. The books are chosen by educators and authors with years of experience. For art lovers, the YA Artist subscription comes with one new young adult book, a new art medium and writing materials that inspire little storytellers to write.
The standard book club is $14.99, the imagination box is $30 per month, and the YA box varies from $34.99-$44.99.
Little Feminists Book Club
Did you know that only 31% of children’s books have a strong female lead? Little Feminists Book Club has bridged that gap by offering book subscription kits featuring female leads and leads based on people of color. With kits for different age ranges, from 0-3 years, 3 – 7 years and 7-9 years, each box comes with one to two age-appropriate books and activity kits — like hands on science and art activities, DIY crafts and family discussion questions. Plus, each box touts the company’s values of empathy, equality and everyone — meaning each box focuses on teaching empathy, boosting equality and fostering inclusion.
Each box is $19 and delivered each month.
Little Passports
Offering more than just books, Little Passports is one of the most popular subscription kits on the market. With a target age of five to twelve years old, each delivery comes in a custom suitcase. Built to encourage imagination, wanderlust and a passion for different cultures, each Little Passports case contains a mix of different learning tools, such as a large map of the world, soft animal squishies, a world passport to fill up, a boarding pass, a hello around the world worksheet with stickers. Considering all it offers, Little Passports is easily is one of the best children’s book subscription boxes on the market. The boarding pass is one of the most integral pieces of the package as it unlocks special games, online books and learning activities on the Little Passports Website.
The standard box is just $14 per month, while the premium (our pick), is $24.90 and comes with a specially curated book that features a new country and a new lesson each month.
Best Children’s Book Subscription Boxes – Sources
Psychology Today
Literati
My First Reading Club
Owl Post Books
Little Feminists Book
Little Passports