Review by Booklist Review
From dinosaurs to flying saucers, mummies to robots, a glorious cornucopia of stuff to find hides in plain sight on the pages of this picture book. At first glance, the format is familiar to children who know Jean Marzollo's I Spy series: a poem includes clues to items that appear on a colorful companion spread. Dig a little deeper, though, and more layers of fun unfold. Between the dizzying, packed scenes are quieter pages with round die-cuts that expose a few more rhyming items to find. Staake's vivid, energetic digital illustrations are brash and colorful, with a mid-century spin and a style reminiscent of J. Otto Seibold's artwork. Young viewers will want to watch for characters and objects that often reappear in incongruous vignettes (what's that ogre doing in the submarine?). A concluding foldout page offers an invitation to start over with a countdown of more things to hunt for. An ebullient, witty title that children will return to again and again.--Barthelmess, Thom Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Staake's spreads are crammed with so much good cheer that it's almost impossible to look at them without smiling. Readers are directed to find small objects amid dozens of Staake's (We Planted a Tree) gleefully retro figures that crowd each picture: "Bubbles! Bubbles! In the sea! AQUA-GOOFY JUBILEE! Search to find the honeybee!" (With four submarines cruising the depths of this underwater scene as well as a whale with a restaurant in its mouth, it takes a while to find the honeybee, who's circling-where else?-around Uncle Sam's hat.) As if this weren't enough, intervening pages have dime-size die-cut openings that reveal tiny details readers may have missed: "Look! A bowl! A troll! A barber pole!" With polished typography, minty-fresh layout, and crisp-edged figures, the book stays tidy despite the frenetic action, and the rhymed and metered text is carefully wrought. Kids will love the robots and the wacky machines, and adults will appreciate the asides: "WAX FRUIT," says a billboard, "When you need a break from reality." Likely to have a long stay in the bedtime pile. Ages 3-6. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-It is a good thing that the publisher chose to make this book with a glossy, sturdy cardboardlike paper because sticky little hands will be giving it a real workout. What little text there is offers a rhyming clue for readers to figure out before they set off to hunt for the answer in the picture. "Bubbles! Bubbles! In the sea! AGUA-GOOFY JUBILEE!/Search to find the honeybee!" The pages are bursting with colorful and wacky things to find, and children will pore over the pictures searching for the vampire cape, the squawking crow, or the swirled ice cream. What fun to hunt and hunt and be able to say, "Here it is!" The book ends with a rhyme and a foldout page that ask readers to start all over again and find 1 cow, 2 bicycles, 3 pigs, and so on until they reach 12 red books. The endpapers are filled with children with their noses in books, which is exactly what will happen when youngsters open this one. This clever, engaging, and fun selection is great for family sharing.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Circular cutouts show glimpses of items that rhyme: "A clock! A sock! A toothy croc!" With each page turn, a double-page spread reveals a zany scene, where readers are asked to point out, for example, a mini robot in a jam-packed factory. Kids will enjoy lingering over all the unusual objects in Staake's engaging, amusing seek-and-find illustrations. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Staake ventures into "I Spy" territory with a set of big spreads teeming with tiny random objects, beaming children and silly cartoon figures, all rendered in a retro silkscreen style. Previews supplied through small die-cut circles on near-empty preceding pages give way to broad expanses of loud color and busy activitylinked to loose themes identified in suitably loud captions: "Weird and kooky THINGS THAT GO! Some go fast and some go slow! / Can you find the squawking crow?" Exclamation-strewn captions and a foldout list at the end invite viewers to try spotting specific items, but there's plenty of eye candy here to reward random browsing, too, as the scenes shift from city streets to a haunted house, a robot factory to a tree studded with suburban bungalows and so on. Children overwhelmed by the visual density of Where's Waldo? or the aforementioned I Spy albums will be drawn to these somewhat more open and visually groovy assemblages of images. (Picture book. 5-7)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
