It is about the size of a passport, it costs less than a coffee, and it holds two people for the length of a flight delay. Every game inside is for two players, every game is played in the book, and the only thing you have to bring is a pencil.

Os and Xs opens the book with a worked example and then rows of empty grids, so nobody argues about the rules. Pairs asks you to join up matching monsters without lifting your pencil off the paper or touching a line already drawn, which turns a page of cartoon monsters into a genuine planning problem. Creature catcher gives you circles of monkeys, tigers, rabbits and frogs, and you take turns drawing round them, one or two at a time, until somebody is left with the animal in the middle. Squares and four in a row are in here too.

Usborne’s own note on these games is that they test logic and ingenuity, and that is the honest description: they are short, they are competitive, and a six year old can beat an adult at them. Twenty four pages, rules printed beside every game, and small enough to live in a glovebox or a coat pocket.

Paperback, 24 pages, by Kate Nolan, illustrated by Jordan Wray. Usborne Publishing, 2025. ISBN-13 9781836050209. Publisher age guidance: 6 years and up.

The other Usborne Minis on the shelf here: Doodling Dinosaurs, Doodling Things That Go, Stick People to Draw and Travel Puzzles.