[I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.  No other compensation was received.]

The concept of The Trail Game is magnificently simple!  You take your finger and you follow the lines from panel to panel. Sometimes you flip the panels forwards and sometimes backwards, and sometimes the path is on the top and sometimes it is on the bottom.  It is, again, magnificently simple — but so much fun!  The Trail Game turns a board book into an engaging and dazzling toy.  It creates so much room for open-ended play that I don’t know whether to put it on the toy shelf or the bookshelf.  Either way, this book doesn’t stay put for long.  Someone is constantly picking it up and playing with it.

I’ve been so pleased and so surprised with how much both my sons love it.  For two completely different children, The Trail Game engages and delights them both.  It is a book that I can read (or play) with them at the same time, despite their age difference of three-and-a-half years, and we all have a great time.

There’s so much that we do when we read/play this book together.  I make sound effects or hum a little tune, my eldest takes his finger and traces along the lines, and the littlest one gets to turn the panels (with help).  Both of my sons are giggling, my eldest is working on matching and tracing, and I’m elated that we’re having such a good time together reading.  Like with his other books Press Here and Mix It Up (just to name a few), Mr. Tullet blurs the lines between toy and book so superbly that he turns reading into child’s play.

I am over the moon with how gorgeous, surprising, and playful this book is.  I hope you get a chance to experience this book (or is it a toy?) very, very soon!

All Ages.  Phaidon Press.  February 2015. 14 pages. ISBN: 978-0714868769  Fiction. Board book.

Where to Get it:

• [Affiliate Link] Amazon.com
• [Independent Bookstore] Indiebound.org
• [Library] Worldcat.org
• [Publisher] Phaidon.com

You Should Read/Play The Trail Game because:

• It is absolutely beautiful!  The book in itself is a work of art that is also inviting and playful.
• It’s amazing to watch your child follow the trail and see what choices they make.  My eldest certainly makes surprising (and delightful) choices each time — he never does the same thing twice.
• The glossy finish on the board book also lets you write in the book with a dry-erase marker. (This was something that occurred to me to try — there aren’t any specific directions in the book to do this.)  My son adores these markers and was thrilled when I suggested that he use them to follow the trail.  He had a blast tracing the lines, and then when he was done I took a tissue and wiped it off for him to do over.  (A little bit of the dry-erase marker lingers in the page crease, but it is barely noticeable.)
• While the recommended age says 3+ due to a choking hazard (which is baffling, but so be it), even my one-year-old son is enthralled with this book.  When we read it together, I’ll trace his fingers over the trail or he’ll put his hand over my finger as I trace it.
• Very, very young children can enjoy this book with an adult; then as they get older, they can follow the trail by themselves.
• I am sure The Trail Game is reinforcing many important developmental skills for both my children — but they are too busy having fun learning and playing to notice.
• This is just one book in a series developed by Hervé Tullet and Phaidon press.  I invite you to take a look at all of them here at phaidon.com.

From The Trail Game by Hervé Tullet.

From The Trail Game by Hervé Tullet.

Book Trailer:

Author Website:

• Herve Tullet 

Where Obtained:  I received a review copy from the publisher. No other compensation was received.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

FTC Disclosures:  Some of the links in the post above are Amazon affiliate links and others are IndieBound affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase something, I will receive an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Which goes to fund my family’s picture book habit.  It’s a vicious cycle, but we manage.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”