Reviewed by Antonella Townsend
If I had to sum up Hervé Tullet’s Dot! Scribble! Go! in few words it would be ‘Confidence Builder’. This large hard cover book is pitched at a target audience between three and six-years-old. It steers the young brain to represent their environment with pride and imagination.
I write from a memory of my own early experience of drawing. It was made clear that my efforts were embarrassing, absolutely not good enough. Needless to say, drawing and painting were activities I avoided for fear of being shamed. However, a child learning from Hervé Tullet is made aware that a dot, a scribble, smudges and lines can become so much more. They are in fact the building blocks of all they see in the world.
Via gradual guidance, he invites early learners to experiment with dots and grids, then progressing to flowers, birds, and cars. It is clear there is no wrong way. Just go for it! He even includes a few errant smudges and fingerprints on the pages, clearly it doesn’t matter.
Tullet is teaching about colours, boldly creating marks of any sort and exploring how they can hold meaning. And taking pride in the result.
Hervé Tullet is also the author of Press Here and Mix it Up! Tullet completed studies in Visual Arts and Fine Arts working as Artistic Director, and producing illustrations for Elle, Le Monde, Liberation, Enfants Magazine, and publishing his first children’s book in 1994.
Dot! Scribble! Go! is well presented on quality glossy paper. Altogether a very appealing first painting book.
by Hervé Tullet
(2024)
Allen & Unwin
Hard Back
ISBN: 978 176118 121 4
$24.99; 56pp