________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 17 . . . . April 23, 1999

cover I Spy Little Wheels.

Jean Marzollo. Photographs by Walter Wick.
New York, NY: Cartwheel Books (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada), 1998.
26 pp., board, $8.99.
ISBN 0-590-04706-X.

Subject Headings:
Vehicles-Fiction.
Toys-Fiction.
Picture puzzles.

Preschool / Ages 2-5.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.

** /4

excerpt:

I spy a rainbow, a long choo-choo train,
A small green frog, and a little toy plane.
cover The popular children's game which begins with one player saying, "I spy with my little eye something that ...," has been transformed into a number of fun and challenging, "I Spy" books for children and adults. In turn, portions of "I Spy" titles originally published between 1992 and 1996 now appear in simplified form in this board book version intended for much younger "I spy" players. Each of the dozen pairs of facing pages consists of a text page, which also contains photos of the 2-3 objects named in the text, and a "busy" photo page in which the sought after items may be found by the searching youngster. For the most part, the "I spy" demands are well within the capacity of the intended audiences; however, in a few instances, the difficulty level is raised significantly because the visual perspective on the objects differs substantially between the two pages or the desired object is largely masked by other objects or obscured by shadows. Despite the "little wheels" portion of the title, objects are not limited to that theme. Because each photo page is rich in objects, creative adults can continue to use the book as an "I spy" source after children have found the text's objects.

Recommended with reservations.

Dave Jenkinson teaches courses in children's and adolescent literature in the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - APRIL 23, 1999.

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