You had better not tickle the reindeer, because it might just snort if you do. That is the whole game, and a baby works it out on the first page: there is a patch of real fur on the animal, your hand goes to it before anyone tells you to, and the book answers with a sound.

Each spread sets up one animal and one dare. The reindeer bounds through the snow with bells on its collar under the line "You might make it jingle." The snow fox sits in a birch wood at sunset with a furry tail and "You might make it bark." The narwhal comes up through the ice with a gold tusk and "You might make it splash." At the end every animal sounds at once while a bouncy tune plays, which is the page toddlers keep going back to.

It is a wintry book: elves throwing snowballs, a snowman, robins, snow falling on every page. Ana Martin Larranaga draws the animals soft and round, and the fur patch is set into the board so a baby can find it without help. Ten thick pages, corners rounded, made for hands that are still learning to turn one.

Board book, 10 pages, by Sam Taplin, illustrated by Ana Martin Larranaga. Usborne Publishing, 2023. ISBN-13 9781805317067. Publisher age guidance: 6 months and up.

For a quieter first reindeer from the same Usborne touchy feely list, without the sound panel, we also carry That's Not My Reindeer.