Tap! Tap! Tap! Dance! Dance! Dance! by Herve Tullet

Readers are invited into this exuberant book with lines of colour trailling across the pages, invited to use their hands to follow the lines, and dance with the shapes produced.

Kids will love following the colours, using their hands to explore, following the instructions in this handsomely produced over-sized book. We are asked to tap our fingers on the buttons, follow the lines around the outside of the page, press all the big dots, leap like a baby goat around the edge of another page. Each page offers a different direction, a wash of colour, movement and humour as our fingers itch to see what is next. Younger readers will love following the lines of colour with their hands, seeing where they are going, what different paths they will be taken. Sometimes they will find a rectangle to use as a leaping frame, asked to jump, nicely, from one corner to the other, sometimes they will find a set of stepping stones and be asked to lightly step on each like a butterfly, sometimes or skip across the page softly.

Many words are given to entreat readers to be involved, to try different ways of moving, to dance with the colours on the pages.

Some words will be unfamiliar, stretching their imaginations and vocabulary. I love the inclusion of spirals and curlicues, and not just any curlicues, but those that are acrobatic and elegant.

Big and small, fast and slow, round and round, accompany the exhortations to jump, be wild, be elegant, to freeze, be slow, dropping and leaping. Lots of different moves encourage little bodies to be active and involved with colour and text.

Kids will love the build up of movement from the slow and serious to the frenetic and wild, while teachers and parents will be just as enthused joining in with the younger readers.

Sometimes called the ‘prince of pre school books’ Herve Tillet is an award wining author with a comment on Youtube (in French with subtitles) about not being bored, and small page on wikipedia. A sturdy book to read aloud with groups and be borrowed by toe tapping individuals.

Themes: Independence, Movement, Dance, Interaction.

Fran Knight