Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Furthering his explorations of ways that readers can interact with color and form in the pages of a book, Tullet (Press Here) uses a primary palette to create a space for dance. "Ready? Place your hand here," begins imperative text, showing a bright blue handprint on the page: "Close your eyes. Concentrate." After some preliminary warm-ups, lines instruct the reader to move across a spread: "Put your hand here, and WHOOOOSH! Circle around the page three times." Jumping, leaping, bouncing, and twirling--hands are invited to motion in ways that mimic a dancer's movements, but on a book-size stage that lends itself to back seats and waiting rooms. Swirls, scribbles, and loops of paint describe graceful bearing ("You're keeping them elegant, right?") before transitioning into wilder visuals and moves ("STOP! It freezes midair"). Calligraphic visuals have the energy of abstract expressionist paintings, and the increasing looseness of the brushstrokes, which land more splashes and blots as the pages turn, affirm the freedom of imperfection. The book's large trim size and plentiful pages offer ample time and space for joyful directed play that builds in energy as it goes. Let the dance begin. Ages 3--5. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Like its predecessors Press Here (rev. 7/11) and Mix It Up (rev. 11/14), this offering by Tullet is a creative and enjoyable model of lo-fi interactivity and a lesson in cause-and-effect, here with an additional element of performance. On the first page we are instructed to place our hand atop a blue handprint and "concentrate." The next page is a warm-up: colorful motion lines appear around the handprint as we practice wiggling our fingers. Then "the show" begins with stage-direction-like text: "Circle around the page three times...Whooo! Your fingers happily jump around on all the dots...Here they take little leaps, as light and frisky as a baby goat." The balletic movements result in shapes and patterns that recall Matisse, Haring, and the Lascaux caves, with some room for nonprescriptive creative self-expression. For those who are used to scrolling and swiping, the motions will be familiar; the payoff comes not with pixels but via analog imagination. Elissa GershowitzMarch/April 2023 p.57 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A literal "handbook" from the creator of Press Here (2011). Demonstrating his usual command of interactive design and using only brightly hued five-finger silhouettes, large dots, and directional lines, Tullet leads little hands in an energetic paper dance of taps, swipes, and swoops, with gleeful invitations to touch every dot in any order here ("Now just on THE BIG ONES!"), swerve between a set of others there "like a fish," slide a palm softly aaall the way across a spread, even leave the page to touch a nose or a head. Whether fingers go fast or slow, hard or "as light and frisky as a baby goat," he encourages "keeping them elegant," "always graceful," and carries that theatrical spirit all the way to a well-deserved round of applause and a courteous bow at the end. Except on the covers, the hand shape on display is generally a right one, but often enough it gives way to a more abstract, Chagall-style splot that is less specific and so allows lefties and children with otherwise equipped appendages an entree. And, unsurprisingly, an invitation at the end to go back to the beginning is well-nigh irresistible. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Sure to delight busy little fingers. (Interactive picture book. 2-4) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
