Say Zoop!: Herve Tullet: 1 (Press Here by Herve Tullet)

My preschooler loves this book. We meet a blue dot called oh and a red dot called ah and some more variations. Great for (limited) letter recognition, relating letters to sounds and getting a quiet child to really open up his vocal chords. This book does with sounds what press here does with dots. Current firm favourite. The word zoop appears on the last page of the book.

Just an amazing book for little ones - and like the book 'Press Here' by the same author, is excellent for children - a refreshingly new concept and interactive book that takes them away from the screens. I will be buying more of these books for all the kids in my life. 'Say Zoop' is especially fun because it focuses on sounds that the child can make - in particular we loved the 'robot' sounds!

From page one it gets the child's attention and builds & encourages interactive skills.My grandson loves it as do I as we spend so much time together going through it.

My niece loved the original 'press here' by the same author so tonight we'd give this a try for her birthday and she loved 8mit not quite as much but still a hit

Love this book! The vocal version of ‘Press Here’.

The kids, enjoying reading a book instead of an iPad...Happy days.

The average toddler has the attention span of the time it takes to …..SQUIRREL! Many modern children’s books are packed full of flaps, textures and gimmicks in the desperate hope that they can draw the reader away from CBeebies for just five minutes. To grab them and keep them, your book should be short, punchy and fun. What you don’t want to do is take a reasonable idea and play it out for page, after page, after page. What’s that ….. SQUIRREL!Interaction is a powerful tool in children’s literature. Stories can be fun, but sometimes a baby/toddler just wants to grab things and have a whale of a time. ‘‘Say Zoop!’’ by Herve Tullet should be that book as you have to interact with every page. There are a series of dots and instructions that you must follow from saying a quiet oh on a small dot to a loud oh on a big dot. Tullet takes you down an avenue of adventure as the tasks and dots get trickier, but this is one avenue that will prove a little too long for many.It is clear to see that Herve’s heart was in the right place when designing ‘‘Zoop!’’, it has a simple and universal appeal as children love to press things and make funny noises. It is just that to the average toddler it is not them that makes the noise themselves, but the toy or book. ‘‘Zoop!’’ continuously encourages you to press here and do that, but all the interaction comes from the reader. In truth this is a very flat book that does not do anything for itself.If the book had been 12 pages this would not have been an issue. A toddler would learn to know what to do, but the book is not this short. It is not even 32 pages long, but 64. I am not usually one for advocating the shortening of children’s books, but in this case the concept goes on for far too long. There will be very few children that will want to keep going all the way.The art style is simple and appealing, but it won’t keep a toddler coming back for more and more. This is a shame as the game gets twisty and turny as you make bird noises or robot noises, but 64 pages of the same type of things is not that appealing. Perhaps if flaps had been added the book would capture the attention more. As it is, the book feels a little like an art project being sold as a children’s book. Parents may appreciate the stripped back art style and intriguing interaction, but a child will go back to their Peppa Pig book with the oink buttons.