A quiet book is a soft book designed to help young children learn and practice new skills. The best quiet books are educational toys made with age appropriate activities for babies, toddlers and preschool age children.
Quiet books (aka busy books) are typically made from felt or fabric pages and feature interactive activities and games for the child to engage in. Popular quiet book page activities include zippers, buttons, snaps and tying a bow. These tasks are often cleverly integrated into familiar scenarios that kids can relate to such as farm life, barnyard animals, doing laundry or making dinner.
More elaborate quite books feature pop-up sections, removable pieces or tasks that are designed to challenge multiple skills at once.
Traditionally homemade Quiet Books were only sold on websites like Etsy, but, as their popularity grows they are becoming more readily available. You can now even find, more generic and inexpensive versions like the Melissa & Doug soft book for sale on Amazon. The prices of quiet books can vary dramatically going from $7 all the way up to $1,000 for a custom made book, however the most popular quiet books typically retail in the range of $100 to $400.
Over the years quiet books have evolved to also include variations on the standard book design. Quiet mats, activity cubes and playscapes are becoming more popular, likely because they are more portable and can feature larger scale activities that are logistically hard to fit into a book.
Activity mats like this City Roads Pop Up Play Mat are great for airplane travel because they roll up quickly, and fit neatly into a diaper bag.
These educational toys are generally referred to as Quiet Book because the activities tend to keep boys and girls quiet and engaged at times when loud play is inappropriate. That is why you will see savvy moms pull out a quiet book during church sermons, waiting room visits or long car rides.
For more information on Quiet Books as Educational Toys click here to see "Play and Learn More, with a TinyFeats Quiet Book"