THE GAME OF SHAPES

Tullet may have finally run up against the limits created by the conventions of a book with this latest addition to his clever Let’s Play Games! series.

It's not that the book isn't attractive. Intense colors enliven the wordless board pages. With each page turn, shaped cutouts overlap to create new and interesting designs. But the designs are more static than in Tullet's earlier offerings. Although each is different when viewed from the verso and recto sides, there are only so many changes possible within the constraints of a bound book. The child's imagination is limited by the order of the die-cut pages, predetermined by Tullet. For the youngest children, the book may serve as a briefly intriguing tactile introduction to shapes. The lack of words means that readers can name the shapes what they wish: what would you call that wavy cutout? The book begs to be disassembled or repackaged as a boxed folio, so the pages can be used as tracing templates and stacked and restacked in endless configurations by imaginative children. Older children, attempting to trace the shapes (as suggested in the message to parents on the back of the book) will find the binding a frustrating obstacle to creativity.

This is the rare book that would be  improved by falling apart.