Eleven monster trucks arrive as bare chassis and the child builds each one: wheels first, then bodywork, then the flames, the teeth, the spikes and the exhaust stacks, all from the sticker sheets bound into the back.

They have names. Lightning Strike, Red Menace, Cobra's Curse. Every truck gets a page of statistics beside it, so a five year old who cannot yet sit through a chapter will happily read a spec panel out loud twice, and that is the trick this series pulls on parents every time.

Forty four pages, large format, no screen and no batteries. It travels well: a restaurant, a waiting room and a long drive are exactly what it was made for, and the sheets stay put inside the closed cover.