How can we help to awaken and develop a blind child’s awareness of reading and written language without books? All scholars agree that books are needed. But before reading and while learning to read Braille, those books should be tactilely illustrated. The aim of this article is to try to show exactly what a tactile picture is and what it is like to read one with hands, from the point of view of a French TVI with 20 years of experience in designing Tactile illustrated Books.