Children’s search-and-find books 🔎

August 6, 2024

Aug 06, 2024

Maybe just nothing up here today? How about that? (Yes. Okay.)

Mini issue: Search-and-finds

I cannot tell a lie: I love search-and-finds. Like, LOVE them. I don’t know why someone hasn’t come up with a search-and-find for adults — I don’t know what that would be, simply adult-themed? Find the penis in this crowd? 🤔 (For all of you publishing folks reading this, there is a market. Probably a very small one. Maybe a market of one here. But I will buy your adult search-and-find, even sans penis.)

MOVING ON.

Here are all the search-and-finds I can come up with for children, and it should be said — I always do say it — that I am sure I missed many, perhaps tons, of great titles in this category, so if you have recommendations, please leave a comment. That is what the comments are for (though I also accept praise, always and forever. I think Gen Z calls this a “praise kink?” I can almost hear the unsubscribes happening now…)

For toddlers and preschoolers

Find My Favorite Things by DK
The I Spy “Little Book” series (Letters, Numbers, Animals, Toys, etc) by Jean Marzollo
If You Go Down to the Woods Today: A Search and Find Adventure by Rachel Piercey
Grand Old Oak and the Birthday Ball: A Search and Find Adventure by Rachel Piercey
Totally Awesome Explore and Find Book For Kids by Lodi Publishing
Richard Scarry’s Busytown Seek and Find! by Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry’s Super Silly Seek and Find! by Richard Scarry
Where’s the Pair? by Britta Teckentrup
Where Are You? by Sarah Williamson

This is one time where I don’t actually mind the Disney character/franchise books, as I think their Look and Find series is easy enough for little ones just learning how to spot things.

For everyone else

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Aleksandra Artymowska
Around the World in 80 Puzzles by Aleksandra Artymowska (this is one of those titles that will convince you that search-and-finds aren’t just for kids)
The Bear’s Song by Benjamin Chad
Elephants on Tour: A Search & Find Journey Around the World by Guillaume Cornet
The Lost House by B. B. Cronin
Penelope Strudel and the Birthday Treasure Hunt by Brendan Kearney
Colossal Creature Count: Add Up All of the Animals to Solve Each Scene by Daniel Limon (love the math component of this one)
Search and Spot Animals! by Laura Ljungkvist
Let’s Find Mimi at Home by Katherine Lodge
The entire I Spy series by Jean Marzollo (old school, the best)
Where’s the Llama? by Paul Moran
Mr. Tweed and the Band in Need by Jim Stoten

Micro review: Can You See What I See? Curiosity Shop by Walter Wick (2024 — out today)

The cover of Walter Wick's new book, with many tiny items and a red and yellow pose-able man front and center — I received a copy of this book from Scholastic, Inc. — opinions are my own

If you’re unfamiliar with Walter Wick’s work, I’m here to encourage you to remedy that immediately. He is the photo-illustrator and writer of the internationally bestselling Can You See What I See? series, as well as the equally acclaimed I Spy series with riddles by Jean Marzollo. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved his maximalist style — there is just so very much jam-packed into every image, and so much to, of course, search for and find.

Curiosity Shop: Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve is his latest offering, out today, and it’s just as rich as ever. Each page is a different room in a “shop,” which, in his signature style, Wick has stuffed to the rafters with items big and small, common and rare, familiar and esoteric. Wick is truly a master of his craft — see two spreads in this book below, and if you want a peek into his incredible process, check out the Behind the Scenes section on his website. His books are like walking into the regional flea market that only pops up once a year in your area: wildly weird, worth the wait, and unbelievably pleasurably when you finally experience it.

Highly recommended.

An inside spread featuring a room full of small houses and a desk with a chair

A space under a staircase, with lots of pictures on the wall and stack of teddy bears

Okay, but… search-and-finds aren’t reading

Correct. For once, I agree. They are not reading.

But that doesn’t mean they’re useless.

They’re entertaining, for one thing — I have used them to great effect for years when I want to do things like, say, put on a pair of pants without being interrupted, quiet time, waiting during appointments, etc. They’re something to do with one’s eyeballs that doesn’t involve a screen, which is always a win. And some of them — like the Wimmelbook series, for example — aren’t so much about searching-and-finding as they are about creating space for readers to tell their own story (which has a ton of merit and value).

And — and I’ve written about this before, in fact, I am stealing the following paragraphs from myself, from my issue on what I call “looking books” in 2021 — it’s worth thinking about the visual literacy that books like this engender.

In the most recently updated version of Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook: Eighth Edition, written by Cyndi Georgis in 2019 (which I reviewed in issue No. 12), for the first time there was an entire chapter dedicated to visual literacy and reading aloud.

On the topic of why it’s important for kids to understand visual images and be able to interpret their meaning, Georgis writes:

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with visual images. Think about the images we encounter daily on television, through social media, at the grocery store, and on the internet. We express our feelings through emojis and use images in place of words when we send text messages. We are a visual society…
Today, with the number of symbols, infographics, maps, charts, and other visual communication kids experience, it is vital for them to be able to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from what they are seeing. This also includes illustrations they encounter in books. What better way to acquire and strengthen visual literacy skills than through pictures and conversation!

Is there a multitudinous amount of information to be interpreted from search-and-finds? Probably not. But also maybe? (There’s a lot going on in these titles, and I absolutely remember making some kind of meaning from my Waldo books as a kid.)

Either way, visual literacy is an important element of being a reader and a human in today’s world, and you can do a lot worse in learning this than by reading — er, “reading” — search-and-finds.

Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah

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