The Game of Mix-Up Art

by Hervé Tullet

Overview

Inside this book are beautiful paintings, ready for you to mix up. Turn the flaps to create a whole new work of art – with squiggles, spots, squares and shapes of all kinds!

Ages 1-3

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780714861883
Publisher:	Phaidon Press
Publication date:	03/30/2011
Series:	Let's Play Games Series
Pages:	14
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Hervé Tullet was born in 1958. After studying Fine Art, he worked as an Art Director for ten years (1981–1992) before joining the advertising industry. In 1990, he produced his first illustrations for the press in France (Elle, Le Monde, Libération, Lire, Enfants Magazine, etc.) and has since been published in numerous magazines around the world. In 1994 he published his first book for children. Since then he has devoted himself to illustrating and painting. A great lover of children's literature, he is the father two boys and a girl, who never fail to inspire him.

Editorial Reviews

As he did in Press Here, Tullet continues to explore the boundaries of book and game in this appealing wordless book, one of six new titles in the innovative Let's Play Games! series, which merges modern design with interactive free play. Each page is cut into three sections, allowing readers to mix-and-match colorful, abstract paintings that feature polka-dots, splotches, swirls, etc. The Game of Mix and Match, available simultaneously, lets readers do the same with familiar objects, animals, and shapes; other titles let children spot differences in scenes (The Game of Patterns), trace a winding fuzzy path (The Game of Let's Go!), use a flashlight to project shapes through die-cuts (The Game of Light), and turn their fingers into characters in a story (The Game of Finger Worms). Stylish and clever. Ages 3–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

'instantly engage the child from the very beginning … it is clear to see that they go far beyond the realms of everyday books; enlightening, inspiring and exciting children'
Family Fun Guide

'Hervé's work is a sumptuous visual assault to the eyes, a stylised celebration of colour, of pattern, of textures … the brevity of text is precisely what brings the books to life.'
Junior

From the Publisher

An explosive array of colors and patterns bursts forth when the audience artfully determines the final product.

Beginning with the die-cut cover, design elements initially convey a rigid style (a straight-lined grid appears in view) then morphs into unapologetic polka-dots. Divided into physical thirds, each flap contains two radically different designs; the boards easily move independently, producing intense results. Smudges of paint collide; swirls dip, dart and dive with a hectic flurry. Readers can contrast bold paint smears, squiggled lines and stark geometric pieces against one another within off-kilter patterns all the way through to the final abstract scene. The elongated portrait-oriented trim allows the rich paintings to stretch into each far-reaching corner. All of Tullet's entries in the Let's Play Games series (each title beginning The Game of...) allow slight interactive variations within their wordless or direction-based narratives. ... Mix and Match is the most stylistically similar to ... Mix-Up Art, with striking objects divided among four flaps per page in a hodgepodge of visual imagery (create a half balloon, half lemon). ... Patterns utilizes sturdy backgrounds to line up a striking, angled menagerie of faces or a fluid free-for-all of expressive lines and repetitive movements. ... Let's Go's distinct voice encourages closed eyes and extended fingers to dance along a velvety green line, a dramatic trip through loops, around circles and throughout patterned mazes while imposing cut-out images create stumbling blocks along the way. Comprehensive cut-outs in ... Finger Worms call for digits again; pointers thrust through the holes serve as people's faces or hide along the pipes. ... Light features spare text when the darkened night brings out an impressive range of interior die-cut designs with a stirring conclusion. "Fish swim across the walls! / Everything flies around! / Faces light up the room! / And a shooting star leads you to sleep."

All of these works will inspire young artists (and their caregivers) that it's not necessary—or even desirable—to stay within the lines. (Board book. 3-4)

Kirkus Reviews