It's at times like this that I wish I still lived in London...
Hervé Tullet is the creator of two of our absolute favourite books - the books we buy for all new babies - Press Here and The Game of Light - and I would have loved to take my boys to this event.
If you're lucky enough to be in London, don't miss it! (And perhaps he'll come up north in the future.)
I'd heard lots of good things about Press Here and I'd also loved Tullet's book The Game of Light, so I was thrilled when lovely Tina from Abrams & Chronicle Books sent me a copy (along with LOTS of other books, many of which I'm sure I'll be reviewing over the coming weeks).
Press Here is brilliantly simple and utterly wonderful. (Are you impressed that I managed to resist "and simply brilliant"? It was hard, honestly.) The first page features a yellow dot and a request to 'press here and turn the page'. When you do, you find two dots and 'Great! Now press the yellow dot again' which leads to three dots. Rub the dots and they change colour, tap them and more dots arrive, shake the book and the dots slide around... Actually, why not watch the book trailer, then you'll see:
My children reacted in pretty much the same way as the children in the trailer. Even Harry, who, at 7, I thought might be a bit old, was charmed. But then I'm 40 and I was charmed. The book is magical in that even though I know clapping isn't making the dots bigger, they're not really sliding across the page... it sort of feels real. I found myself thinking it would make a great iPad app, but the book works in the same way as an app would, but without the technology - another reminder, if one was needed, of the wonder of books.
I find it really inspiring that such a simple idea can so brilliantly capture the imaginations of children who have used computers since before they could walk. It really is something special. Herve Tullet will be going on our 'must buy' list.
I've been reading about Herve Tullet's wonderful-sounding Press Here lately and I've added it to my wishlist, so when I saw The Game of Light in my local(-ish) Waterstone's I pounced on it.
It's a small board book with each page featuring cut-out shapes through which you shine a torch to project the shapes onto the walls and ceiling.
We rushed home and grabbed the only torch we could find - a dinosaur torch that roars when its mouth opens to reveal the torch itself. It didn't work brilliantly with the book - the dinosaur's mouth kept getting in the way - but 2-year-old Joe was transfixed as was 7-year-old Harry when he got home from school.
Such a simple, but brilliant, idea. I'll be buying copies as gifts for all the children I know.
