Mix it Up! by Herve Tullet

Book: Mix it Up!
Author: Herve Tullet
Pages: 56
Age Range: 3-5

Mix it Up! is a companion book to Herve Tullet's Press Here. As with Press Here, the author encourages young readers to physically interact with the book to make things happen. With Press Here, readers pressed dots to apparently make them group, change color, or move about on the page (as shown on the subsequent page). In Mix it Up! the focus is on mixing colors. 

First, young readers are asked to tap a grey dot to encourage various colored splotches to appear. Then the primary color blends are explored, like this:

"With one finger take a little bit of the blue...
And just touch the yellow. Rub it...gently..."

On the next page, the reader sees a blotch of green paint, with yellow and blue just visible around the edges. Tullet keeps things varied by sometimes having readers mix the colors by rubbing the pages together, and sometimes tilting the book to dribble colors down into each other. The resulting paint blobs or splotches vary depending on the mixing method used (more splatter when you "Close the book and push down really hard", etc.). Later in the book, he introduces the effects of mixing white or black in with a color. 

While Mix it Up! does not feel as groundbreaking as Press Here did on a first reading, it is a fun and creative introduction to color mixing. I look forward to introducing it to my four-year-old (though I am expecting that she'll want to get real paint out as soon as we're done reading it). Fans of Press Here will not want to miss Mix it Up!, and readers new to Tullet's concept are bound to be charmed. Highly recommended for preschoolers (though better for individual than for group reading). 

Publisher: Chronicle Books (@ChronicleKids) 
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

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