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Title: Mix-up World

Author: Herve Tullet

Translator:

Illustrator:

Publisher: Templar Publishing

Date Published: 2008

Format: Hardback

Genre: Baby

Book Category: Board Book

Age Range: Under_5

Original Title: First published in French as Jeu de Construction, Editions du Panama, Paris, France, 2007

Country of Origin: France

Mix-up World

by Herve Tullet
Age Range: Under_5

A man is standing on a hand, a mountain rests on the back of a camel, a house stands on blocks and an elephant balances on a lorry. Where can you see such crazy sights? In Hervé Tullet’s Mix-Up-World!

A cleverly designed picture book, Hervé Tullet’s Mix- Up-World is really a game and consists of pages split into panels, each with a bright picture on. Since the top half of the page is separate from the bottom, all the separate sections can be flipped forward and backwards to be mixed and matched with other segments in the book. A pictures only book printed on stiff card to withstand inquisitive little fingers, this is a very child friendly and child proof book for the zero to five age range.

The actual design of the book/game, however, is perhaps more exciting than the designs on the pages. Whilst it’s bright and colourful and encourages creativity, some combinations of images work much better than others, and if your child is not artistically inclined and willing to patiently put images together, they could very soon get bored. There’s also a chance that very little children (in the same way that they ignore the present you spent ages buying and would much rather just have the box in came in) will be fascinated by the way the pages can be split more than by what’s actually on them. Pictures and picture only books are a great way to get children interested in looking at books, but I can’t help feeling that as Mix-Up-World is a hybrid between a book and a game, some children will either feel cheated of a story or find the fact that the game comes in a book format rather limiting. Whilst you can discuss the images and push children to use their imaginations to explain their pictures, but not all children will enjoy this, some will inevitably find a story more interesting and more of a stimulus.

The book is neatly designed and Tullet has come up with a great idea, simply executed but it’s definitely one to think about before you buy. Certainly think about what sort of games and activities your children enjoy. I know my mother would not have purchased this one for me when I was little, probably because I struggled with a five-piece jigsaw and couldn’t work out how to use a shape sorter.

Abby Phillips (2015)

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