You're my favorite little fawn: my love, you are my deerest. Through die-cut pages shaped into the snowy forest, this winter board book visits animal families one by one, deer and mice, birds and foxes, martens and swans, each parent telling their little one exactly what every child wants to hear at bedtime.

The die-cuts are the trick that makes it work: the shape cut into the front cover carries through the pages and figures into the story, so tiny fingers trace the fawn while the pages turn. Bryony Clarkson's wintry collage art keeps it cozy rather than cold, and Harriet Evans keeps the rhymes short enough for a squirming two year old.

It reads as a Christmas book but says something a family means all year, which is why this is the winter board book that stays out after the decorations are packed away.