Press Here

This is a children's book, called Press Here, by Here Tullet, and originally published in France under the title Un Livre.  Also, I have a habit of calling it Push Button, which is an entirely different book by author/illustrator Aliki.

I can only assume that this book isn't as popular as I think it should be because it was only first published in English two years ago, and c'mon, we've got to give it some time to gain popularity, right?  At any rate, I think it's a perfectly adorable, lovely little book that children can "interact" with, and though I've only read it to one child (Kate), I'm quite certain that it's her favorite of the books I checked out for her, since she's forever asking me to read her "the button book."

Basically, you open the book and see this:

So you press it, and when you turn the page, BAM!  TWO DOTS!  THERE ARE MAGICALLY TWO DOTS!

Rubbing the dots make them change color, tapping them makes them multiple.  But what may be Kate's favorite part is shaking and tilting the book, which makes the dots all jumbled up and then slide around the page.  Then you can line them all up, and turn the lights on and off, but then there's dark all over the page so you lift it up and blow on it to make it go away, but then you've accidentally blown too hard and most of the dots are off the page so THEN you have to tilt the book some more to get them all back in their proper place in the center of the book.

Then Kate makes me do the next part (I don't know why she won't do it herself):

Yup, that's right: they get HUMONGOBIG when you clap.  They get so big, in fact, that the yellow dot fills up the entire page, and then you have to...well, I don't want to spoil the whole thing, children's book though it is.

I'll say this, though: I don't really read the text on the page, since it's kinda stilted if you're just reading it aloud to a kid.  So instead, I modify it a little, to make it flow better.

But yeah.  If you have a child, or babysit a child, or have a cousin/niece/nephew who is a child, I do recommend this book.

(Though you may be sick of it after a dozen reads.)