‘Feel Your Reading Book’, series of six tactile children’s books
The ball is flat
This is an activity book all about a ball. It is a simple story making clever use of the very first words in braille. The word for ball in Dutch is ‘bal’, using the first letters in braille: b - a - l.
The story itself calls upon the children to actively participate using a beachball and magic stick. Starting with an illustration of a deflated beachball, the children have to blow up the real ball. After that strange things happen: the ball changes into four little soft balls, then disappears behind a cloth only to have turned into a wheel. Using the magic stick to tap the illustration the child then has to try and turn the wheel back into a ball. Finally, after first changing into a baloon the ball transforms back into a beachball.
Under guidance, a child or group of children can read together and actively participate in the story which uses lots of repetition. Through active involvement the children are experiencing concepts such as ‘full’, and ‘empty’. When I tested the illustrations, there was a lot of social interaction between the children who took differnt parts enacting the story. In order to strengthen the close relationship between the 3D ball and the 2D tactile illustration of the ball I used the same materials. The balloon is also a real balloon (extra strong) which I have sewn onto the page.
