Riddles: Books For Kids
Children’s literature has many notable options when it comes to riddles. To help you find the right books for you and your young reader, we’ve compiled a list of the best kids books about riddles.
Our list includes board books, picture books, and chapter books. Board books are best for babies and toddlers from ages newborn to 2 or 3. Picture books are generally great options for toddlers and for preschool and kindergarten age children. Picture books are especially enjoyable for adults to read aloud with young kids. The chapter books on our list are generally best for elementary through early middle school age tween kids. You can filter to sort by the best book type for your kid.
When it comes to children’s stories about riddles, there are a variety of titles. This list covers everything, from classics like Knock, Knock, Who Lives Here? to popular sellers like Dolphins at Daybreak.
We hope this list of kids books about riddles can be a helpful resource for parents, teachers, and others searching for a new book!
What appear to be four separate stories, one installment of each appearing on each spread of the book, turn out to intermingle and, in time, become one story. Always Macaulay is playing with our perceptions and making allusions and illusions. A robber hides out in a herd of cattle who, in turn, disrupt the passage of a train. At the train station, passengers at first are absorbed in the newspapers they are reading, but as the wait lengthens, they start playing with the newspapers and with each other. A boy, a passenger on the train, witnesses some of the events, but not all of them. Parents, previously staid and distant, have apparently changed, at least temporarily, because of their time spent waiting for the train that day. The book can be frustratingly confusing or, in the proper hands and minds, a challenge and a source of fascination.
Rhyming animal riddles feature a monkey, a sloth, and other rainforest animals hiding under the flaps in this lift-the-flap board book.
It’s sink or swim for Jack and Annie when the Magic Tree House whisks them off to the middle of the ocean. Luckily, they find a mini-submarine on a coral reef. Unluckily, they are about to meet a giant octopus and one very hungry shark. Will the dolphins save the day? Or are Jack and Annie doomed to be dinner?
Stinky Giant - Pepper and Jake love herding sheep in the little valley where they live. But there’s a problem– a big problem. Urk, a giant who lives on a nearby mountain, is big and stinky and doesn’t care that dumping dirty laundry water in the nearby stream causes a flood down below every single week. So Pepper and Jake hike to Urk’s mountaintop lair to confront him. But there’s no reasoning with a giant, especially one who gives cryptic puzzles to solve. If the kids can solve it, Urk will move away. If not, Pepper and Jake (and their sheep) will be the featured ingredients in Urk’s next bowl of smelly soup!
A Potato on a Bike - This delightful board book will make the little ones in your life giggle at the absurdity of a fly on the phone and a carrot in the tub. The text’s repeated asking Have you ever seen…? preceding the refrain No way! will have toddlers yelling “No way!” themselves as you read through these silly situations. Celebrated artist Elise Gravel brings the silly to a new level in A Potato on a Bike, because really, has anyone ever seen a broccoli counting to ten or a sausage reading a book? But wait, how about a…baby being tickled?! Uh-oh, I think the answer for that is–yes way!
The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo - Is there anything more fun than a class trip to the zoo? The Gingerbread Man and his classmates don’t think so, and they get to solve riddles on a WILD scavenger hunt. They meet giraffes, monkeys, and even a fox (especially scary for a Gingerbread Man!). But a zoo full of critters is a tricky place for a tasty cookie—even a very fast one—and the Gingerbread Man ends up separated from his friends. He needs to solve all of the riddles to catch up with his class and help someone else who is lost. I’ll be a detective. I know that I can! I’ll solve all these clues. I’m the Gingerbread Man! Animals galore and a trail of clues make the Gingerbread Man’s latest adventure his wildest one yet.
The Apple Orchard Riddle - Mr. Tiffin and his students from the perenially popular <i>How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?</i> are back in this picture book about a school trip to an apple orchard! <p/>In this playful, humorous, and child-friendly classroom story, the students learn a lot about apples and apple orchards–including how apples are harvested, how cider is made, and what the different varieties of apples are–while trying to solve a riddle. The book also celebrates how some children learn differently than others. <p/>Margaret McNamara and illustrator G. Brian Karas bring us another fun and educational picture book.
State birds, flowers, trees, and animals brought to board book form for the youngest book lovers. Toddlers will delight in these books filled with rhyming riddles framed by brightly painted clues, introducing elements that make each state so special.
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