Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
I Spy School Days: A Book of Picture Riddles
Photographer: Walter Wick
Picture Book Series
For ages 4 to 6
Scholastic, 1995 ISBN: 0590481355
For many of us school is a busy interesting place where we not only learn things and explore new ideas, but where we also are able to spend time with our friends. Now schoolchildren can explore their school world in a new way, in an I Spy way.
In all there are thirteen I Spy spreads to search through in this book. The first spread is a simple, but at the same time, engaging look at the alphabet. Large letters are spread across the page and the white space in between is filled with little metal, plastic, and wooden figures of objects of all kinds. Beneath the letter W readers will see a watering can. Above the E there is an egg beater. Next to the lace covered L there are little plastic figure of a lion and a lizard. Readers can of course look for the items mentioned in the rhymes at the bottom of the page, but there are so many others things to look for as well.
Further along in the book there is “Storybook Theatre” page. On this page there is a photo of a home made theatre that is decorated with pictures of characters from famous fairytales. As they explore the page will find the three little pigs, the Pied Piper of Hamlin, Little Red Riding Hood, and many other familiar book friends. Which story is being told on the little theatre’s stage?
This delightful book not only provides young readers with wonderful riddles to solve, but it also reinforces the things that children learn about in the classroom. As they explore the photographs looking for the things mentioned in the riddles, children will learn about dinosaurs, what schools in the old days were like, math, numbers, the alphabet, basic mechanics, and more.
