If You Like... Seek and Find Books

I think we all can relate to pouring over the pages of our favorite picture books as children, searching out the tiniest details. Maybe you created your own objects to seek out within the illustrations, or maybe you thoroughly enjoyed being given clues and prompts? Either way these picture puzzles can provide endless hours of fascination. Here are some new suggestions to continue the fun of this classic children's genre!

Come Out, Come Out, Chameleon!

By Jonty Howley

Beverly, MA: Happy Yak, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 2024. Picture Book.

Set in a clever story format designed for younger readers, Come Out, Come Out, Chameleon! is the perfect introduction to the seek-and-find genre as you help a slightly clueless old man search for his pet chameleon. An exasperated dog sidekick and a visual surprise at the end will have your little readers laughing out loud for more!

Where's Waldo: The Great Games Speed Search

By Martin Handford

Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2024. Picture Book.

The latest offering in the ever-popular Where's Waldo series, The Great Games Speed Search has a fun new twist! Lay the book out flat and face off with an opponent as you race against each other to see who can find Waldo the fastest --chase him through soccer matches, dances, singing competitions, and more!

The Sea Hides a Seahorse

Written by Sara T. Behrman

Illustrated by Melanie Mikecz

Oakland, CA: The Collective Book Studio, 2024. Picture Book.

Journey along with various species of seahorses, as they camouflage throughout their day while eating, hunting, and courting to outsmart predators. Can you find them all?

Masters of Disguise: Camouflaging Creatures & Magnificent Mimics

By Marc Martin

Somerville, MA: Candlewick Studio, an imprint of Candlewick Press, 2021. Informational.

Chock full of information on how 12 very different species camouflage to survive and thrive, Masters of Disguise is not only beautifully illustrated, but also an engaging and challenging seek-and-find that is sure to draw in elementary audiences.

Lost in the Museum

Written by Will Mabbitt

Illustrated by Aaron Cushley

New York: DK Publishing, 2021. Picture Book.

Stevie is lost in The Met! How will she find her way to back to her family's meeting point? Follow along and search out clues through gorgeous illustrations of real-life Met exhibits!

Comments

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography. The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?). Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry. This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.

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