The most recommended hide and seek books

My five-year-old doesn’t get sick of this, no matter how many times I read it to her before bed. It is a funny story about an egg who goes on a hide-and-seek egg hunt to find his friends. It is filled with puns and laughter for people of all ages!

Based on the case of child killer Mary Bell this book is an unexpected page-turner and is written with so much heart. It’s dark, compulsive, and the prose sparkles.

This is another dual timeline book we follow Chrissie as a child living a hard life and eventually committing murder. We meet her again as an adult with a new identity and a daughter of her own. Nancy Tucker is a psychologist I believe and it certainly comes across.

The entire cast in this book is written with such tenderness and insight. A really difficult book dealing with a tough topic but also a story of redemption and understanding.

"This is your night, my Amani!" The dark skies are still full of your laughter and joy, even though they get quieter as your friends go inside one by one." 

Do you love observing the night? It's something about the night that's peaceful and beautiful. I enjoy reading this story from the perspective of a father watching his daughter gain her independence and using melodic metaphors to empower her existence. Personally, I love reading literature that compares nature's beauty to something we adore...our child. I believe this is why I connected to this story and I know other parents will too. This is a delightful read-aloud to share with your child for many nights.

Already a huge Lindsay Currie fan, I jumped at the chance to read It Found Us.

It lived up to my already sky-high expectations. The wonderfully spooky cover and title are matched by the story of amateur sleuth Hazel, her brother Den, and friend Maggie solving the mystery of a fellow student who disappeared while playing hide and seek in a graveyard.

Authentic and often humorous banter among the trio brings a welcome lightness to balance the excellent atmospheric creep factor. Currie excels at creating genuinely scary moments without resorting to gore or violence. She does creeping dread so well. Fans of high-quality middle grade fiction with a spooky bent will love this latest title from a truly gifted author.

If you really want to be scared, Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon is the book for you.

This story takes the hide and seek game and gives it a creepy twist. The book opens when Justin goes to see his friend Zee, who mysteriously disappeared a year earlier and is now back. But nothing is the same… Anyone who plays the game disappears, one by one, taken by the mysterious Seeker. This book had me sleeping with the light on.

If you have a kid reader who truly loves to be scared, Hide and Seeker is the perfect book.

This is a difficult book to describe! It’s about shapes (the main characters are a square, circle, and triangle), friendship, fear of the dark, and imagination. As a picture book writer (but not illustrator), I love to see a book where a writer makes space for an illustrator to tell part of the story. This book does that really well, particularly in the part where it’s just Jon Klassen’s signature eyes in the dark! There are three books in this series but this one’s my favourite.

When bedtime arrives, where is Fred? A big, fluffy dog, he’s busying himself with everything else, except getting ready for bed. He runs through flower beds and mud, needs a bath, plays hide-and-seek, and finally ask for one more story. Mirroring behavior of any toddler avoiding bedtime, Fred finally gets ready for a good night sleep. Drawn loosely in ink and watercolor, Fred will run away with your heart as well.

This is one of my favorite all-time picture books! Each page identifies one “type” of quiet accompanied by a whimsical illustration with delightful animal characters. Some of my favorites are “Hide-and-seek quiet,” which shows a baby moose trying unsuccessfully to hide behind an office chair; “Lollipop quiet,” which shows a bear and a rabbit with bandages comforting themselves with lollipops; or “Top of the roller coaster quiet,” which shows an assortment of animals anticipating that fateful moment! The words and illustrations are beautifully paired and children will want to invent their own stories about each scene. A sweet, evocative, and original book that expands the notion of quiet in imaginative ways.

I really enjoyed this clever Young Adult whodunnit mystery centering on three families reuniting for their annual summer holiday in Cornwall.

When one of the teenage daughters goes missing following a game of hide and seek, her doting, yet secretly envious, best friend tries to piece together what happened.

The story is told between present and past events, but also through letters written by the main protagonist to the missing girl, phrased in such a way I wasn’t quite sure how much or little she really knew about what happened to her friend, which elevated the mystery.

The families are brimming with resentments, tensions & jealousies, heightening the intrigue and potential culprits, but what I loved most was the hugely unexpected denouement. A very clever twist I didn’t see coming!

What I love about Hide is that it takes an innocent children's game and elevates it into a wildly fun and scary thriller about a group of adults invited to play a seven-day game of Hide and Seek in an abandoned amusement park.

I love how masterfully the story unfolds, revealing enticing breadcrumbs along the way about what this strange game of Hide and Seek is truly about. But, even more than Hide's very inventive narrative, I love how the story serves as a clever metaphor for some ultra-relevant social issues.