Press Here and Say Zoop!

A book that's illustrated with almost purely dots, circles and splodges can't be the most exciting of books, right? Well if you haven't read the series of books by Herve Tullet you might believe that. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of these books at first, I had seen them at the library and always assumed that BookBairn was too young for them and that even when she was older they would probably only get a read or two. In general, I don't like to admit that I was wrong. But... I was wrong on both counts (yes, Papa I'll sign to that!). These are some of the most engaging and interactive books that we have ever read!

We have four from this brilliant series: the original 'Press Here', 'Mix it Up, 'Let's Play' and the newest release 'Say Zoop' (which we currently have three copies of to give away on our social media). I'll start of by being honest with you - Let's Play doesn't get read very often. But I would estimate that we have read at least one of the other three on a daily basis (and often more than once a day) for months. And if that doesn't tell you how much BookBairn enjoys them I'll tell you a little more...
 

In 'Press Here' there is a little yellow dot that you can press in the centre of the page and if you do magic starts to happen. You press, and when you turn the page more dots appear. As if by magic. And as you read through the pages and follow the various instructions what your little ones fingers and hands do affects the story. It's rather ingenious.

Sorry for the strange filter - it was a phase I went through on Instagram and I have lost the original photos.

BookBairn likes 'Mix it Up' too which follows the exact same premise but it also teaches children about mixing colours. So your little one dips their finger in the red and rubs it on the blue and on the next page they have made purple. Shake the book and yellow mixes with blue to make green. Slam the book shut and... splat... the yellow and red have mixed to create orange. Then you can talk about different shades as white and black are introduced. We have paired reading this on with a paint activity too which was so much fun! I squirted primary coloured paint into ziplock bags and BookBairn squished and squeezed until she saw the colours changing. The Wee Page Turner (who was very wee at the time) had a go too! Brilliant, if, like me, you hate messy art.


By far the favourite of the bunch is 'Say Zoop' and BookBairn and I like this for different reasons I think. She likes to make silly sounds. She likes to make me say silly sounds it's all fun and games as each dot is given a sound and you have to read in specific ways and as the dots are bigger or smaller at specific volumes. But I love it because this is the first book that BookBairn can actually read by herself. After several reads together she now puts her fingers on the dots and shouts "oh" for the large blue dots, or whispers if it is a small dot and similarly the corresponding red or yellow spots. She is beginning to translate symbols into sounds - pre-reading skills. But this book isn't just an awesome learning tool. It's great fun! Really great fun! So much fun, in fact that we made our own one using coloured dot stickers. Another mess free and fun bookish craft!


Herve Tullet is an expert in participatory bookmaking and ensures that children really engage with reading and books. It's no wonder kids have gone dotty for these!