The nativity told in three moves a toddler can follow: a long walk, a bright star, and a stable full of animals with a baby asleep in the middle of it.

Lesley Sims writes it in short lines with a question tucked into the first one, clippety-clop, what do Mary and Joseph pass on the way, and Ag Jatkowska paints a warm sandy road past a walled town with goats and hens and a stray dog to find while you answer it. The shepherds get the best page: a stone sheepfold at night, a campfire, sheep everywhere, and one star growing bigger and bigger until it shines as bright as day, with two of them pointing up and asking what it is. The last page is the arrival, the shepherds whispering hello at the stable door while the ox and the donkey look on and the baby sleeps through all of it.

Twenty square board pages, 145 mm on a side, thick enough for hands that are still learning to turn one page at a time. A QR code on the back cover opens an audio recording of the story, which makes it a Christmas book that reads itself while you are cooking.

Board book, 20 pages, 5.7 by 5.7 in (145 by 145 mm), from the Usborne Little Board Books series. Usborne Publishing Ltd., January 2025. ISBN-13 9781835404843. Publisher age guidance: 2 and up.

The rest of the Usborne Little Board Books on our shelf: Moses in the Basket, Jonah and the Whale and Daniel in the Lions' Den.