This gorgeously illustrated picture book from Ballarat author Ben Sanders has a delightfully retro design. From the first line, ‘I’ve an Uncle Ivan who drives a pie van’, we’re off on a rollicking journey with a host of weird and wonderful characters, all of whom use a variety of transports to get to the village square.

After each character is introduced, they reappear on later panels, so it can be fun asking your child to spot them. The rhyming text rolls off the tongue and stays in the head. But the real winner must surely be the die-cut paper characters that can be coloured in and used for imaginative play.

For ages 3 and up.

Angela Crocombe