The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration: Book two hundred and one

Search-and-find books can be a lot of fun. Some authors create incredible photographic scenes for children to explore, and some create illustrations that are full of details that are interesting and often amusing. Today's book is a stunning example of an illustrated search-and-find title.

Look! A Book!

Bob Staake

Picture Book

For ages 5 to 10

Little Brown, 2011, 978-0-316-11862-0

   Most of take the world around us for granted. We don’t take the time to really look at the little details, the cool stuff that is happening right under our noses. In this book, Bob Staake invites us to explore some truly bizarre worlds full of incredible animals, people, robots, aliens, and otherworldly creatures. He challenges us to really look and see.

   There are very few words to read in the book, most of the words being rhyming invitations to “Look!” and to find certain things in the artwork that he shows us through die-cuts on the pages.

   For example, our first seek-and-find challenge is to “Look!” to find “A book! A hook! A cowboy cook!” When we turn the page, we are presented with a double page spread showing “Weird and kooky things that go!” Which is an understatement. In the artwork, (among other things) we can see a zebra flying a biplane, a tiger flying a very strange looking flying machine, a bear riding a peculiar looking green bicycle, and a bird driving a truck that delivers escargot.

   On subsequent pages, we are presented with scenes showing escaped museum creatures, an underwater landscape, a fun park, a haunted house, a robot land, and a treetop town. He ends the book but challenging us to go back to the beginning to find the things on a list that he has put together for us. He hopes that the book will help his readers “to SEE the world anew.”