The Homestyle

A few weeks ago at the library, I offhandedly grabbed a new book called Press Here. I’d never heard of it, but I was drawn to the simple cover:

When we got home, we (as usual) jumped excitedly into our new pile of books, but somehow I forgot about this simple little book until I was weeding through library books last week, pulling out the ones that needed to be returned. I opened the book and flipped through the pages. Immediately I wished we’d read it sooner. I called the kids in from playing, because I knew we just HAD to read it right then and there!

It is such a simple book, but all of the kids begged me to read it no less than THREE times (in a row!). The illustrations are completely made of simple dots in three colors – red, blue, and yellow.

Each page has a very simple instruction: Press the yellow dot. Press the blue dot five times. Now shake the book! The kids were delighted when each turn of a page seemed to have made the dots on the previous page magically obey what they had just done. For example, when they shook the book the next page looked like this:

Or when they were told to “tip the book to the right,” the next page looked like this:

Given how simple the book was, I was surprised how much my kids fell in love with it. But I think this is just one more reminder that kids don’t need batteries, remote controls, or automated voices to enjoy an activity. Frequently, the best things are the simplest things.

We are definitely going to be buying “Press Here” to add to our permanent book library!

What good books have your kids been reading lately? Click here to read a review of another one of our favorite kids’ books.