A PICTURE BOOK WITH PLAY EFFECT

Abstract: A picture book, whose left side may be provided with a story text, has at least at the right side a picture plane (in fig. 3 a representation of rails and a cat). According to the invention, the picture plane is provided with depressions to receive interconnectible toy elements (3-6). The picture plane and the associated depressions are so arranged that a child will be guided by the story text to place the interconnectible toy elements correctly in the picture plane to provide a three-dimensional representation of the situation described in the story text. The depressions may be so placed in the picture plane that the building elements are placed with a pre­ determined mutual modular distance, which makes it possible to build several layers with the interconnectible elements.

Description: The invention concerns a picture book with play effect and comprising means for positioning an object in a picturebook plane so that in connection with the reading a child is induced to place the spatial figures in the picture plane. Books with play effect are known e.g. from the German Offenlegungsschriften 1 924 206 and 2 450 332. Further, books are known where pockets and associated cardboard figures are designed to induce the child to participate actively in the use of the books. As to the state of the art, US-A-2 946 137 and US-A-4 176 473 disclose a picture book with play effect comprising means for positioning an object in a picture book plane. The positioning means are adapted to cooperate with toy elements but there is only a low educational value when playing with the known books. The object of the invention is to provide a picture book of the above-mentioned type which - by a special arrangement of the book and the said objects - involves an improved educational effect through direct interplay between book and toy. This object is achieved in that the said objects comprise interconnectible toy elements and that the positioning means are adapted to cooperate with such toy elements. When the book is used, the child will be induced at various passages in the text to place the spatial figures at specific places in the picture plane. The picture resulting from each positioning affects the course of the text so that the child's overall experience occurs through motory and auditively and visually perceptual activity. It is also essential that the child itself is free to go beyond the text and carry on the building activity since the toy elements are interconnectible. The positioning means in the picture plane may be recesses and /or elevations, as stated in claims 2 and 3, and when the positioning means are arranged as stated in claim 4, several layers of toy elements may be built together in a bond, the lower layer being positioned in accordance with the modular dimensions of the toy elements. In an embodiment of the picture book, a left side may contain a text, while the associated right side is provided with pictures and the said positioning means, but it will be appreciated that the picture planes may be present separately, while the associated story text may be provided in a separate book, on tape, etc. The invention will be explained more fully by the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the drawing, in which fig. 1 shows an opened book for use in connection with the invention, fig. 2 shows some interconnectible toy elements for use in connection with the invention, fig. 3 shows an embodiment of the picture book according to the invention where the toy elements are positioned in the picture plane, fig. 4 shows another example of a book, while fig. 5 is a perspective view of the book of fig. 4, with the toy elements positioned correctly. The book shown in fig. 1 comprises a left side with a story text and a right side with a picture plane. As appears from the figure, the picture plane shows some skies, a cat as well as a railway track. According to the invention, the picture plane comprises some positioning means which, in the embodiment shown, are shaped as depressions 1 and 2 (the hatched areas) whose contours mate with the contours of the building blocks shown in fig. 2, the building block 3 fitting in the depression 1, while the two blocks 4 and 5 as well as the figure 6 fit in the depression 2. With reference to the text shown at the left side, the child will be induced during reading to place the said blocks in the manner appearing from fig. 3. To assist the child additionally, the hatched areas may be coloured in accordance with the colour of the block to be placed in the area. Fig. 4 shows another example of a story text and associated picture plane with depressions 7-9. In this embodiment, the depressions 7 and 8 are placed mutually so as to correspond with the modular dimensions of the building elements. Then, as shown in fig. 5, the big block 3 may be placed on top of the small blocks 4 and 5 and be interconnected with these in accordance with the modular dimension. For the sake of clarity, more complicated examples are not shown since it will be appreciated that the picture plane may be more complicated and contain a larger number of positioning means to provide a greater degree of difficulty. At the same time, it will be possible to build a larger number of building blocks together in more combinations.

Claims: A picture book set with play effect and comprising means for positioning an object in a picture book plane, characterized in that the set comprises interconnectible toy elements and that the positioning means are adapted to cooperate with such toy elements. A picture book set according to claim 1, characterized in that the positioning means comprise recesses in the picture plane. A picture book set according to claim 1, characterized in that the positioning means comprise elevations of the picture plane. A picture book set according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the mutual distances between the positioning means are a multiple of a modular dimension of the toy elements.

Inventors: THOMSEN, ERIK
Applicants: INTERLEGO A.G., LEGO A/S
Application year: 1987
Main classification: A63H33
IPC codes: A63H33