Press Here

Cheryl Dickemper, Collection Development Manager

8/16/2011 12:49:49 PM
From the moment I opened it, this book had my attention. Tullet’s simple text gives the reader basic instructions such as “press here” and “tilt the page to the left.” In response to what the reader is physically doing with the book, there are colored dots that appear to multiply when pressed, or slide around when the book is tilted or shaken. The concept is so simple, and yet so completely engaging. It brought to mind the many games and apps available for smart phones and tablets where the player moves the phone or tablet to make things happen on the display.

After I played with the book for a while, I began to think about its classroom applications and wonder where to place it in Booksource collections. This is not a storybook that will help with comprehension strategies or serve as a mentor text. It is not going to help anyone with character education or the study of plot development. It is interactive and imaginative, but those terms do not seem adequate; to place it in a grouping of “interactive” books seems a disservice. It is just pure fun. And that is when it dawned on me that I did not read this book—I played with it. I was, of course, reading it, but it did not feel at all like reading.



And that is where this book belongs—in the hands of kids (young and old) who love to play. Despite the fact that as readers we know the book cannot respond to us in the way that a device like a phone or a tablet does, this clever little book leads readers to set aside disbelief and experience a rare kind of interaction with a text. When you see students sitting with this book open, shaking it, tilting it from side to side, clapping their hands, and pressing and rubbing the dots on the page, you will know that they are engaged with their “reading.”