The 9 Best Stickers

Preschoolers get the most from the Melissa & Doug Sticker Collection, a wide paperback with more than 500 stickers and 10 themed pages to build scenes on. The pieces are large and chunky, so small fingers can peel them without help, and the pages make good backdrops for made-up stories. A princess and tea-party edition holds the same book under a pink cover. These are regular stickers, though, so a finished scene stays put.

Kids and tweens who decorate notebooks, journals and phone cases get a lot of variety from the Fashion Angels 1000+ Stickers book. Its 40 sheets mix food, unicorns, monsters, space, pets and emoji faces, and the glittery foil cover makes it an easy gift. Real Homes named it a staff pick in its guide to stickers for kids. Many pieces are tiny and fiddly to lift, and that guide warns the glue can bother sensitive skin.

Teachers who hand out a sticker for every finished worksheet go through them fast, and the Purple Ladybug Teacher Stickers box holds close to 5,000. The designs are smiley faces, stars, apples and smiling stars in foil-look colors, sized for a chart square or the corner of a page. Sheets come in a flat box that slips into a desk drawer, marked for ages four and up. The designs repeat a lot, so older students can tire of them.

Raised foam shapes give small children something to feel as well as see, which is the appeal of Savita Puffy Stickers. The pack has 20 sheets of letters, numbers, sea creatures, dinosaurs, cars and animals, and the foam shrugs off a spilled drink. It costs little, so it works for a rainy afternoon or a stack of party bags. The glue loosens over time, and the foam bits are small, so watch toddlers who put things in their mouths.

Children who like a goal get one from the Cupkin Animal Habitats sticker book: each of its 12 scenes shows a habitat somewhere in the world, with its own animals to place in it. A spiral binding lets the book lie flat on a table or a lap, and matching coloring pages sit beside the scenes. The maker aims it at preschoolers. Once every scene is filled, though, there's little left to do, since the stickers stay where they land.

A scratch releases a smell from each of the Purple Ladybug Scratch and Sniff stickers, and the box mixes 15 scents, from cherry and grape to chocolate and peppermint. That turns a plain reward into something kids talk about, at home or in class. The maker marks the box for ages four and up. The smell weakens after many scratches, and fruit and candy scents can tempt younger children to lick them.

Each sheet in the Joyin Make-a-Face Stickers set has a blank animal head plus a spread of eyes, mouths, eyebrows and hats, so kids build a silly lion, shark or unicorn of their own. With 36 sheets, there's one for every child at a party or in a small class, and they slip flat into goody bags. Some pieces stick fast and tear when a child tries to move them.

Vinyl is what lets a sticker survive a wet water bottle, and the win4pdlay Water Bottle Stickers pack holds 200 cute vinyl designs: animals, food, plants and short upbeat sayings. The seller says the art leaves out weapons, drugs and crude jokes, a common worry with big mixed packs. They also suit lunch boxes, folders and laptops. The cartoon style fits kids and younger teens better than adults who want something plainer.

Adults who keep a paper planner use Peter Pauper Weekly Planner Stickers to flag what matters: deadlines, birthdays, days off, meetings and to-do labels in soft purple, teal, orange and pink. The booklet holds 575 small stickers, enough to mark many months of weeks. Peter Pauper Press is a gift and stationery publisher, and the labels match its planners. Adhesion is uneven, though: most hold, but some lift off the page over time.