“Press Here” by Herve’ Tullet is an amazing children’s book!

I was delighted to spend last weekend with my daughter and mother. As usual, our time together included a trip to Barnes and Noble where Lydia said, “Mom, look at this cool book.”

As she began to read I said, “I’m bored already.” To which she replied, “Mom! You have to DO IT!!”

I did it and it IS a cool book!

It is “Press Here” by Herve’ Tullet.

It begins by instructing the reader to ‘press here’ on the yellow dot.

You turn the page and it magically becomes two:

When you press the yellow dot again, it turns red. As you follow the instructions in the book, the number of dots increase, they change positions, color, and develop into patterns…until you shake the book and they look like this:

Tilting the book causes them to slide to the side:

Clapping your hands makes them increase in size:

It is clever, unique, and quite a magical story!

It is full of concepts: colors, size, position, left/right, patterning, cause and effect. Children can physically interact with the story and practice listening and following directions.

Story Extension 1

You can extend the story by doing some dot painting.

Supplies Needed

Paint
Paper
Dot Paint Markers
or you can use fingertips to make the dots.

Story Extension 2:

This activity is for children over the age of 3 years. Use marbles to experiment with the action of the story.

Supplies Needed

Marbles or golf balls
Pattern Packing Tape
a tray
paper towel tubes

First, just have your child experiment with the marbles and the tray. Tilting the tray causes all kinds of action that can actually be a little tricky to control:

Next cut up a paper towel tube and tape the pieces to the tray and try to get the marbles to go through the tubes:

It is great fun and action! So much so that I lost control while I was taking photos and dropped it over the edge of the banister of our deck. Sometimes you need three or four hands. 🙂