Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Where's Waldo?
Picture Book Series
For ages 4 to 9
Candlewick, 2007 ISBN: 978-0763634988
Waldo is off “on a worldwide hike,” and he would like you to join him. He is taking everything he needs with him, and he is also taking Woof, Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, and Odlaw along. Waldo and his travel companions are rather careless with their things, so keep an eye out for Wizard Whitebeard’s scroll, Waldo’s key, Woof’s bone, Wenda’s camera, and Oldlaw’s binoculars. Then there will be twenty-five Waldo-watchers to meet, each of whom will appear only once in the places that Waldo visits.
Waldo begins his journey by going to the seaside. He sends us a postcard telling us that he saw “this girl stick an ice-cream cone in her brother’s face.” He also saw something else that sounds too fantastical to be true. Our job is to look at the picture of the beach Waldo visited to find Waldo, his friends, their possessions, and the Waldo-watcher.
Waldo’s next destination is completely different, and a lot colder. Waldo is in the mountains on the ski slopes. There is chaos everywhere, and Waldo tells us, in another postcard, that somewhere on that mountain he saw a young man giving his girlfriend a bunch of flowers.
Readers are sure to enjoy the twelve large format one-of-a-kind search-and-find illustrations in this book. The author has illustrated busy and incredibly detailed double page spreads for every one of Waldo’s destinations. Young readers will be able to easily spend several hours exploring the artwork, laughing at the funny situations that Martin Hanford put into the illustrations, and looking for Waldo and his chums.
This is one in a series of books about Waldo.
