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HIDDEN WONDERS!

Name: HIDDEN WONDERS!
Author: Walter Wick
ISBN: 978-1-338-68671-5

From the Can You See What I See? series

by Walter Wick ; illustrated by Walter Wick ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2021

Brain-bending exercise for eyes and minds of all ages.

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Rich in wonder, hidden and otherwise.

The best place to hide something, the saying goes, is in plain sight, and the devil, they say, is in the details. Photographer Wick exploits both principles in this gorgeous and captivating challenge to the observational abilities of young and old alike. Wick collaborated on the popular I Spy series with the late Jean Marzollo and continues the tradition in his own Can You See What I See? books. Here, 12 different set pieces of great detail and complexity offer readers hours of enchantment, searching for a menu of objects hidden within each tableau and discovering a great deal more in the process. These dioramas are so richly detailed that the longer one looks, the more one finds to amaze and amuse. Each scene spans roughly five-sixths of a spread, with the remaining strip bearing its title and a rhyming list of items to find within the picture. Mirrors and impossible-object illusions add to the visual complexity. For example, “Costume Ball” takes place in a hall of mirrors while “Space Station Impossible” is designed as a Penrose triangle made up of three right angles. “Wacky Workshop” features perpetually climbing Escher stairs and “a house that’s / impossible / in 3 different places,” and “Flatland” blends 3-D optical illusions with strategically placed objects that make it hard to know what’s flat and what’s not.

Brain-bending exercise for eyes and minds of all ages. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-338-68671-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
A RAY OF LIGHT
by Walter Wick ; photographed by Walter Wick

- BOOK REVIEW
HEY, SEYMOUR!
by Walter Wick ; illustrated by Walter Wick

- BOOK REVIEW
CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? TOYLAND EXPRESS
by Walter Wick & illustrated by Walter Wick

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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A BIKE LIKE SERGIO'S

by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...

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Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.

This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)