A ball makes a circle. A present makes a square. A fir tree makes a triangle. Shapes are easiest to learn when they are found in real objects rather than presented as outlines on a white page, and that is how this board book teaches them.

Every spread has a printed trail to follow. A child runs a fingertip around the rim of the beach ball or along the edges of the tree, and the shape stops being a word and becomes a motion. Tracing is the bridge between recognising a shape and eventually drawing one, and a two year old will do it over and over without being asked twice.

The illustrations are lifted from the We're Going on a Bear Hunt animated film, so the dog, the fox, the sun, the woodland path and the bear all show up as characters a child may already know from the screen. Familiarity is what makes a toddler pick a book up on their own.

Twelve thick board pages, rounded corners, and a square trim that fits a nappy bag. A companion to My First Opposites, and the two are frequently bought together.