Blue and Toad meet a bright yellow school bus full of animals looking out of every window, and Blue decides on the spot that he would like to be a school bus too. It is a fine job, but a very big one for a little pickup. Then somebody misses the bus, and the job lands on Blue anyway.

That turn is why this became an instant number one New York Times bestseller: it hands a nervous child the exact feeling of a first school morning and then shows them being equal to it. Alice Schertle keeps the rhyme rolling, Jill McElmurry keeps the countryside glowing.

Thirty two pages, hardcover, and the best back to school present you can give a four year old who is pretending not to be worried.