Let's Play! by Hervé Tullet

Are you ready…to play? From the creator of Press Here and Mix It Up, interactive stories for children that explore color theory, Herve Tullet’s brand new book Let’s Play! explores emotions and the sheer excitement of playing with color and line.

If you are not familiar with his first two books for babies and toddlers, prepare to get your hands messy. Don’t be shy—when the yellow dot asks you to “Press the top corner to get me started,” put your finger on the page! Yellow dot is the main star of Let’s Play and will guide you and your child on a rollercoaster ride through the book. 

Expect to play hide-and-seek in a forest of trees with blue and red leaves, roll into a dark tunnel, and tiptoe up the stairs. You will flip, turn, and “clap your hands twice and say za-za-zoommm!” Yellow dot might even accidentally bounce off the page and into your hair! Finally, with the help of Yellow dot, your child will learn to STOP at a red light, and GO at a green light.

Tullet breaks the boundaries normally found in a picture book. Reading becomes interactive and playful. The story can only happen with the child’s finger pressing on the page and following the instructions. In Let’s Play, get ready to encounter a world of excitement, conquer obstacles, and explore fears (heights and dark places) in a way that will have your child begging to play one more time.

Hervé Tullet, author and artist of LET'S PLAY!

Play

Hervé Tullet turned the world on its ear with Press Here. It was executed with such genius simplicity, that we all wondered why it had never been done before. With Mix It Up!, he holds to that simplicity and does for color what Press Here did for gravity.

Mo Willems (l.) and Herve Tullet in Bryant Park
Photo: Meg Parsont/Phaidon Press

The way Tullet plays with cause and effect is eye-opening for any child--from 1 to 92. And "play" is the key word. "Play is the work of childhood," wrote Jean Piaget in his Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood (W. W. Norton, 1962). Through play, a child learns how to resolve conflict, how to negotiate, when to lead and when to step back.

Tullet teaches, through play, what happens when you mix two colors (a new hue emerges), turn a book on its side (the paint runs down the page), and when the child places a hand on the page (you leave an impression). When Tullet and Mo Willems spoke together at New York's Books of Wonder in April 2013, they talked about the importance of play in their own work. "I want my books to be played, not to be read," said Willems, best known for his Pigeon picture books and his Elephant and Piggie beginning readers. 

Both author-artists said they draw in order to free themselves. Isn't that play? Neither author admitted to getting stuck ever, nor are they afraid of getting stuck. Tullet quoted a jazz musician who once said that improvisation feels like falling, but you never actually fall. Willems said that each evening, he and his family and any dinner guests on hand all gather around the dining room table where they stretch a giant piece of paper and draw. His dining room walls have a chalkboard surface so they can draw there, too. 

Tullet and Willems prove that the best work comes out of play. It's true for children; why shouldn't it be true for adults?