Blue is out on the farm in autumn, and this book hands the child the work: pick the apples, decorate the pumpkins, put the costumes together, then find a way out of the maze. Four of the twenty four pages are stickers, more than a hundred of them, and the rest are scenes sitting half empty and waiting to be filled in.

A sticker book buys a very particular kind of quiet. Placing a sticker is a decision about where it goes, which absorbs a child far longer than turning a page does, and the sheets are bound into the middle so the book still lies flat while they work. It folds into a bag for a car journey or a waiting room without anything to lose.

Eight inches square, written by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry, the pair behind the Little Blue Truck picture books. Published by Clarion Books, a HarperCollins imprint, and graded for ages 4 to 7.