Soft and woolly. Shiny and smooth. Every one of the six spreads in this board book carries a different texture, so the youngest Little Blue Truck fan gets to touch the sheep rather than just look at it. That pairing of a felt word with a felt surface is how a baby first attaches language to the world, and it is doing real work while it feels like play.

The rhymes and animal noises that made Little Blue Truck a New York Times number one bestseller are all here, which matters because this is a book read aloud dozens of times. It has to be bearable on the fortieth pass, and Alice Schertle’s rhythm is the reason it is.

Under the fun sits the idea the whole series is built on, put gently: we do not have to be the same to be the best of ourselves, and the best of friends. Large, sturdy board format, made for hands that are still learning to be gentle.