2018 School Spending Survey Report
Mix It Up
illus. by Hervé Tullet. 64p. Chronicle. Sept. 2014. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9781452137353.
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PreS-Gr 1—Following up his ingenious Press Here (Chronicle, 2011), dynamic and innovative author and illustrator Tullet presents another interactive picture book, this time designed to teach children about color. Tullet shows blobs of paint on white pages and asks readers to touch their fingers to each blob to mix and create new colors. Though the book is clearly aimed at young children, even adult readers will admire this gorgeously made volume—and may find it difficult to resist physically shaking and touching the book as per the author's directions. While simple, the book's design is effective and even intricate in the details: spatters of paint adorn the sides and corners of each white spread, adding an authenticity that readers will love. The text is spare yet inviting ("Now try tilting the book to the right. What do you think will happen? Right again!"). Tullet has in the past proven himself a master at playing with the author/reader relationship, through books such as The Eyes Game (Phaidon) and Help! We Need a Title (both 2014, Candlewick), and this imaginative new work is no exception. Rivaling an iPad for its sheer fun and interactive elements, this engaging and inventive title will easily find fans.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library JournalTullet follows the same format as Press Here; this time the play focuses on what happens when you mix colors. We learn by example--and without mess--by "mixing" with a finger or shaking or tilting the book to make the colors "run." Blobby impasto paint and "accidental" finger prints around the edges invite children to try mixing in real life.
"It's that time again. / Are you ready? / Tap that gray spot. Just a little, to see what happens." Tullet follows the same format as Press Here (rev. 7/11), but this time the play is focused on colors and what happens when you mix them. We aren't given any vocabulary about primary and secondary colors; white and black; tints and shades. Instead, we learn by example -- and without mess -- by "mixing" with a finger or shaking or tilting the book to make the colors "run." While Press Here worked almost like a magic act, with the page turn supplying a dramatic delay before the surprising reveal, Mix It Up! is about fact-based predictions: "If you rub the two colors together really hard…then what happens?" (Here, the answer is: red mixed with blue makes purple.) Close observation of the illustrations reveals that Tullet took some liberties with his colors (his "primary" red actually has too much yellow in it to make a clean purple, for example). But children are unlikely to mind, because everything else about this book -- blobby impasto paint, "accidental" finger prints around the edges -- invites them to find some paints and try mixing in real life. lolly robinson
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