A beach, a meadow, a lake. Every spread is one summer scene loaded with things to do in it: count the crabs, spot the difference between two sandcastles, join the numbered dots to finish a hot air balloon, draw over the dotted line to make the tents and the sails.

Because the pages are coated and the pen is mounted on the cover, a child can do a page, wipe it and do it again on the drive home. Counting, observation and pen control are what is quietly being practiced, which is the point Usborne makes about this series and the reason it lands the year before school starts.

Kirsteen Robson wrote it, Manola Caprini drew it. Twenty four pages at 225.0 x 276.0 mm, published May 2024.

Also on the shelf here: Wipe-Clean Airport Activities, twenty four wipe-clean pages of dot to dots, mazes, matching and spot the difference set across one busy airport, with the pen on the cover.

For a summer that gets colored in permanently, My Big Summer Coloring Book holds over 90 pages of thick, simple outlines.