Help! We Need a Title!

Hervé Tullet is known the world over for his playful, interactive approach to books. This book in need of a title is no exception. The endpapers show two scribbly characters playing, oblivious to anything but their game. But then, in the first opening, the same characters are astonished when they notice that a reader is calling by. Knowing that their book isn’t ready yet, they try valiantly to create a story to keep the readers engaged, before eventually realising that what they really need is the author, who has left them to play while he works.

Cue Hervé in person who, in spite of being a bit surprised by the disturbance, creates an instant story for them. A brief mis-en-abyme saves the day, not because the characters are at all worried for themselves or their role in the book, merely because they respect their readers, are glad to see them and want to keep them happy.

The scribbled characters and margin notes all reinforce the idea that this is just the author’s working notebook and not something finished and ready for public consumption. As the author is seen interacting with his characters and his characters interact with the readers, it calls into question what you actually understand a book to be. Great fun – playful and inventive with lots of space to wonder.