TAP TO PLAY!

Blip is a round red creature who’s out to win a game.

He tells readers he needs to reach a numbered bar (it looks like a horizontal row of five Tetris blocks) to win. He is very willing to tell readers how they can help him win and “get a surprise.” Shake the book so he bounces—but that’s too fast. Tilt to the right and then left (the countdown of five numbers is now at four). How about tapping? Or filling up your mouth with air so Blip will blow up like a balloon? The numbers are down to one! But then the game is won, and suddenly sharing the plain white background is a green door, with a purple figure visible through its window. The surprise is a new friend, purple and clearly feminine, gender coded with eyelashes and a yellow bow in her topknot. The graphics are clear, sharp and geometric, pleasing and vivid against white backgrounds. Blip is quite direct about what he wants readers to do, and they may indeed enjoy the shouting, tapping, whispering and shaking. If they do, chances are good they are not familiar with Hervé Tullet’s Press Here (2011), which sets the bar extremely high for any book that attempts to mimic the interaction of a tablet or computer game. Blip does not meet it.

A pale, pale cousin of Tullet’s best-seller.