A Delightful Children’s Picture Book

When our kids were growing up, our youngest son loved one picture book in particular.

He had me read it over, and over, and over.

I got to where I detested reading it to him.

I think that the mark of a good children’s book is one that hold’s a parent’s interest. If a parent likes the book, then she will be willing to read it many times over. (Speaking from experience here.)

Today, I want to share with you one such picture book — a book that I will never tire of reading. That book is Press Here by Hervé Tullet!

This book is fun, fun, fun to read. And, it teaches things without a grandchild realizing it! But I’ll get to that in a moment.

First, the fun!

Your grandchild starts out by pressing the yellow dot. Once.

Voilá! Another yellow dot appears.

Then your press it again. And again.

Each time a new yellow dot appears.

Then, you gently rub one of them. What happens?! The dot turns red. Rubbing another one turns that dot blue.

Now you have a red dot, a yellow dot, and a blue dot.

Then, you do a whole bunch of different things. You tap the dots. You shake the book. You tilt it to the left and then to the right.

(This is what happens when you tilt the book.)

Then you press REALLY HARD on all the yellow dots.

You blow on the dots.

You stand the book straight up.

You clap once. Then twice. Three times. Then more and more.

Something fun happens with each action — something that almost seems magical to children.

By the end of the book, there is one single yellow dot so that you can do it all over again.

This explanation doesn’t do the book justice. You’ve got to read it to your young grandchildren to see just how much the book delights them which in turn delights you which in turn makes for a delightful reading experience. (Oh, have I told you that this book is delightful? Very much so!)

Now let me tell you some of the things that this book teaches. It teaches color recognition — in a fun way. No ho-hum-this-is-so-boring-because-bananas-are-used-so-much-to-teach-the-color-yellow.

It teaches counting by having the kids tap and clap certain amounts of times.

Children learn small muscle motor control by the tapping, rubbing, shaking, and clapping.

They learn the difference between right and left.

They learn to follow directions.

The first time you read the book to your grandchildren, you can ask them things like, “What do you think is going to happen when you (fill in the blank with the action the book is having them do).” This helps them with their critical thinking skills.

Isn’t it cool how much a child can learn from picture book?

Since this is such a breath of fresh air in the books about counting and colors that I highly recommend that you get a copy for your library. That way, you can read it to your grandchildren when they visit you. Or, give it to your grandchild so her parents can read it to her.

Happy reading!

(Note: I was not remunerated in any way to write about this book. Nor was I given a free copy of it. I was simply lucky in that my daughter-in-law discovered this book and has it in her library for me to read to my grandchildren when I babysit them. Wahoo!)

You can get a copy of this book for $6.