Everyone at the North Pole has a job, and this reindeer does not have his yet. Mom and Dad pull the sleigh. He is still working out how a harness goes on, still finding out that flying is harder than it looks, still being told that practice is the whole trick. Ten thick board pages later he is closer, which is exactly the arc a one year old wants from a Christmas story.

The board is die cut into a shaped outline rather than a rectangle, which is what Cottage Door Press's Animal Shaped Board Book series means, and Roxanne Rainville paints him in a warm retro palette against snow, spruce and the lit windows of the North Pole stable. Carrots and apples are involved. Candy canes turn out to be his favorite.

Ten pages by Holly Berry-Byrd, designed in the United States by Cottage Door Press and published in November 2021. It shelves alongside A Little Bunny, A Little Owl, A Little Fox and A Little Hedgehog, which are already at Stellar Luxe.