Beep! said Blue. Happy Valentine’s Day! Little Blue Truck drives the farm handing out a personalized card to every friend he has, Hen and Pig and Goat and the rest, and somewhere along the route a small worry starts up: will anybody send one back to him?

That question is the whole reason this book works. It is the exact anxiety a young child feels about a class valentine exchange, put somewhere safe where it can be resolved kindly, and the resolution lands without a word of moralizing.

Alice Schertle writes in the gentle catchy rhythm the series is loved for, with Blue’s signature Beep on every page, which is what makes a read aloud survive the fifteenth request. A February staple that gets pulled out every year rather than read once and shelved, and a better classroom or lunchbox gift than another box of candy.