A red squirrel kit tells his own first year in his own words. He is born with no fur and his eyes closed, curled in a nest his mother built out of sticks, grass and dry leaves. He grows into nuts, seeds, berries and the cones of evergreen trees. He learns the branches. The last page puts him asleep under the twinkling stars on the line a one year old will ask for again and again: I am a loved little squirrel.

The board is die cut into a shaped outline rather than a rectangle, which is what Cottage Door Press means by its Animal-Shaped Board Book series. Sydney Hanson paints him in warm oak greens and acorn browns and hides a ladybug, a cardinal and a cluster of red toadstools in the spreads for the child who looks twice. Ten thick pages, 5.06 by 6.56 inches, small enough to live in a diaper bag.

Written by Rosalee Wren, illustrated by Sydney Hanson, published by Cottage Door Press of Rolling Meadows, Illinois in 2022. It shelves with the other Animal-Shaped Board Books already at Stellar Luxe: A Little Bunny, A Little Owl, A Little Fox, A Little Hedgehog and A Little Reindeer.