The trails are cut into the board, so a toddler does not need a pencil, a grip or any of the skills a maze book normally demands. A fingertip drops into the groove and the puzzle simply works. That is the whole trick, and it is why children who cannot yet hold a crayon will sit with this one for a surprisingly long stretch.

Ten mazes, each a different scene: help Rabbit reach her lettuce leaves, get Squirrel home, follow the path through. Elisa Ferro fills the margins with the sort of detail that makes a second and third read worth it, and Felicity Brooks keeps the instructions to almost nothing, so the book is playable long before it is readable.

Tracing a route with a finger is early practice for the pencil control that school will ask for later, and for the spatial thinking that says a line has to go somewhere. It just does not feel like practice to the person doing it.