Congratulations! You’ve been promoted to the main character! These interactive books will have you so involved, you’ll feel like the star of the story. Navigate your way through the pages by playfully engaging with the text, as these interactive books invite you to participate in ways that will have a direct impact on the story. To a child, some of these interactions may even seem like magic as they’ll see the immediate effect of their actions and words. Interactive books often include tons of humor and silliness making them the perfect way to bond and connect with your child.
In this post, you’ll find four playful activities related to one of the best-selling interactive books, Press Here by Herve Tullet. These inviting and age-appropriate activities will have you inferring, following directions, connecting actions to outcomes (cause and effect), and becoming the author. They were specifically designed to develop your child’s literacy skills all while creating meaningful moments together, the core of My Book Bud. So go ahead, and press, tap, and shake your way through one of the great interactive books, Press Here.
Table of Contents
Press Here
Author: Herve Tullet
Published by Handprint Books/Chronicle Books, 2011
Summary: It’s remarkable how captivating a few basic dots and some simple directions can be! Take the dots on a wild adventure as you poke, shake, clap, and shimmy. Watch as they grow, change color, and multiply right before your eyes. This interactive surprise will have your little one begging to read it again and again.
Skills to Tackle (with Interactive Books – Press Here):
Inference: Best for ages 3-6
Making an inference requires the reader to “read between the lines” to discover something that is not directly stated in the text. Readers do this by combining their background knowledge with the evidence in the text. We also do this in our daily lives, making it an incredibly important skill to learn and eventually master. Interactive books are a great way to practice inference as they are extremely engaging for toddlers. So, take advantage and ask some inference questions!
Inference Example:
You can infer your child doesn’t like their dinner because they haven’t touched it and they keep asking for something different. They don’t have to come out and say the words, “I don’t like this.” You just looked at the full plate of evidence in front of you and combined that with your background knowledge of your child’s eating habits and made the inference.
This book does a great job of providing your child with explicit directions to follow so that something “magical” will happen to the dots.
Some of the directions given don’t just tell the reader what action to do, but also how to do it in order to effectively complete the task.
For Example:
One direction says to rub the dot gently. It could have just said to rub the dot, but it explicitly told the reader how to rub the dot as an extra stipulation.
Another says to tilt the book just a little bit. Again, the direction could have just said to tilt the book, but adding in “just a little bit,” encourages the reader to really think about how the action should be executed.
You and your child can make inferences about how the precise directions given affect the outcome of the actions.
Example Conversation:
- Parent: On this page, it tells you to rub the dots “gently.” What does that word mean?
- You might need to help your child define the word, but this is great for vocabulary development.
- Child: Gentle kind of means doing something soft!
- Parent: Yeah! Can you think of a time when I tell you to be gentle?
- See if your child can come up with some examples. In my own house, I am constantly telling my kids to be “gentle” around the baby or the dog.
- Parent: That’s right! What would happen if you weren’t gentle around the baby?
- Child: Well, he might get hurt and I don’t want to hurt him! So I just pat him on the back with soft hands.
- Parent: So why do you think the book said to rub the dot “gently?” What do you think would happen if you didn’t?
- This is a complete inference question and there is no right or wrong answer here, but try to have your child relate their answer to their real world connection above.
- Child: Well, maybe the dot would get hurt if I rubbed it too hard and it wouldn’t be able to change colors!
- Parent: Interesting! Here it says to tilt the page “just a little bit.” What does that mean? What would happen if you didn’t do that?
- The second question is an inference with no right or wrong answer, so have fun with a response.
- Child: “Just a little bit” means to not do too much of something. Maybe if I titled the book too much, the dots would have gone flying out of the book and all around the room!
- Parent: Yeah! Maybe the dots would have grown wings and flew around the room! That would be crazy! Can you think of a time when you need to do something “just a little bit.”
- Child: When I’m using glue, I try to only use a little bit because if I use too much, it goes all over the place and is really messy!
Try using this same conversation with other specific directions given. Be sure to ask an inferential question as well as find a way to relate it to their own lives as well. As always, try being silly to garner extra connection! Interactive books are inherently silly, so be sure to play to the book’s tone in your conversation.
Following Directions: Best for ages 2-5
Following directions is extremely important as kids will not only need this skill in school, but in all aspects of their lives. Directions are part of our everyday lives, even if we don’t realize it. Cooking a meal, using the GPS, or even simply walking around a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign all require us to follow directions. Interactive books offer the perfect way to practice this skill in a simple way.
This book provides super simple directions as the words on the pages tell your child exactly what to do. Your child will be directed to tap, rub, and blow on the dots. They will also be asked to shake, stand, and tilt the book.
Use the book to see how many directions your child can follow in a row without needing you to prompt them twice. Following multi-step directions is a more advanced skill because it requires your child to listen, process, and use their memory to complete a task in a specific order.
Read and model how to complete the directions given in the book first before asking your child to do so on their own.
Example Conversation:
- Parent: Ok, it says here to press the yellow dot. Can I see you press it?
- The book itself does a great job of scaffolding directions from the beginning. The first few pages give only one direction and then slowly builds to multi-step directions. It will seesaw between one direction and multiple directions on each page throughout the book. This is a great way to “test” your child’s attention.
- Parent: Here, it says to rub the yellow dot, then the red dot, then the blue dot.
See if your child can complete this task in order. My two year old has a hard time with this task so I actually take her hand and help her complete it and do it in the correct order. When I first asked her to do this, I don’t think she actually knew what I was asking as “rub” might have been a new word for her. After showing her what I meant, she had an easier time, but she still needs help doing it in the correct sequence.
If your child is able to follow the directions in the book with ease, see if they can follow some simple directions in a real life scenario. I like to do this with my four year old at the playground. I’ll say to her, “First go climb the rock wall, then cross the bridge, then go down the sliding board, and then come give me a high five!” She loves this game. I love it because it works on following directions and gives her the opportunity to move her body while doing it. Sometimes she does the activity with ease and other times, she needs to come back and clarify a direction or two.
You can really challenge your child by asking them to do something on one leg or make a silly animal noise while going down the slide reinforcing that direction following skill while also being silly and having fun!
Interactive books are the perfect way to practice this skill because they “talk” directly to the reader and give explicit directions on what to do next.
Cause and Effect: Best for ages 2-4
Simply put…when one thing causes something else to happen, this is cause and effect.
Example of cause and effect in our everyday lives:
Cause: flipping the light switch up
Effect: the lights will go on
In Press Here, the reader will see how their action (cause) leads to a specific result (effect) when they follow the directions. This is the case with most interactive books making them great for practicing cause and effect along with prediction, suspense, and so much more.
You and your child can discuss how their actions “spark” the dots to transform throughout the book.
Example Conversation:
- Parent: Look! The book told you to press the yellow dot. What happened?
- The result of their action will pop up on the following page.
- Child: It made another dot appear!! Now there are two yellow dots!
- They may need you to point this out first. So, slowly scaffold the activity for them, if needed.
- Parent: Yeah! Now it is saying to press the yellow dot again. What do you think will happen when you do that?
- This question requires your child to make a prediction about what will happen next using their prior knowledge of how their previous action led to a result in the book.
- Child: Maybe another dot will appear!
- Parent: Oh, wow, you were right!
Follow a similar line of thinking throughout the rest of the story.
Your child will be asked to tap, shake, tilt, and blow on the pages of the book. Even if you have already read the book 50 times, ask your child what they think is going to happen when they are asked to do something in the book as this will encourage them to think about the immediate cause and effect of their actions.
After reading the book, discuss some “cause and effects” your child experiences throughout their day.
Example Conversation: Best for ages 3-6
- Parent: This book is so cool! When you did one thing, it made something else happen. Like when you pressed the yellow dot and another one appeared! Believe it or not, stuff like this happens all day long. Let’s think of some examples.
- Parent: When you turn the sink on….(cause).
- Child: Water comes out! (effect)
- Parent: When you pump your legs on the swing…(cause).
- Child: You go higher! (effect)
This brings the idea of the book to life and applies the skill to your child’s own world.
If your child is younger, have a conversation like the one above where they are filling in the blank.
If they are older, see if they can think of a few “cause and effects” on their own.
Even if they are older, they might need you to provide some examples first. If they are still struggling, you can try to have a back and forth conversation where you each come up with one or two so it’s not all on.
Interactive books are wonderful for practicing cause and effect, but related cause and effect to your child’s own life makes the concept concrete.
Free Printable!
Use the free printable linked below to practice cause and effect! Cut out each pair and separate the pieces along the line. Mix them up, then have your child connect the puzzle pieces so each cause matches its effect.
Expansion Activity:
Become the author! If you could rewrite this book, what directions would you give the reader? Jump? Skip? Dance? This very simple activity is an extremely easy way to expand on the ideas of the book while getting your child up and moving. Simply exchange the words in the book with your own new words and complete the new actions to see if they still yield the same results! You can do this activity with all interactive books! Your child will love feeling “in charge.”
That can look something like this:
- Parent: On this page, it tells us to “rub” the dot. What is something else we can do to make the dot change colors?
- Child: Let’s scratch the dots!
- Parent: Wow! Look, it still made the dots blue and red, even with our new directions! Cool! Here it says to “tap” the dots five times. What can we do instead?
- Child: Let’s jump five times instead!
- Parent: Here it says to “clap.” What else can we do to make the dots get bigger?
- Child: Let’s do a silly dance!
There is so much potential to have fun, let loose, and be creative with this activity. Try doing this activity with every page on the book. You could really push your child to think creatively by having them come up with a new result for their actions. Oh, you scratched the dots and turned them into froggies! Your child might need help coming up with some ideas at first so be sure to model for them first if this is challenging for them. There are no right or wrong answers with this so even if their ideas are totally out of left field, lean into them and embrace the goofiness!
My oldest loves to make fart sounds with her hands *sigh, I know, but this would be a great time to allow her to do something goofy like that since it is in a comfortable and controlled environment. Of course, talking to your kids about appropriateness is important, but allowing them to be goofy in a relaxed environment helps to strengthen your bond. As noted previously, interactive books are silly by nature, so try to embrace your quirky side. If you do, you and your child won’t be able to stop laughing which is the ultimate goal!
To Wrap Things Up:
Interactive books like Press Here offer an incredible opportunity to make reading a hands-on, playful experience. By engaging with the text through movement, conversation, and creativity, you’re not just reading, you’re making memories. These books provide a natural way to build important skills like inference, following directions, and understanding cause and effect, all while sharing laughter and connection with your child. The magic of these stories comes to life with you at the center, making every reading experience unique and special. So, go ahead and Press Here.
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