CM Magazine: I Spy Gold Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles.

________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 18 . . . . May 7, 1999

I Spy Gold Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles.

Jean Marzollo. Photographs by Walter Wick.
New York, NY: Cartwheel Books (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada Ltd.), 1998.
40 pp., cloth, $16.99.
ISBN 0-590-04296-3.

Subject Headings:
Picture puzzles-Juvenile literature.
Riddles, Juvenile.

Grade 1 and up / Ages 6 and up.
Review by Dave Jenkinson.

*** /4

excerpt:

I spy a spool, seven arrows, a veil,
A stop light, a meter, a small sack of mail:
An alligator car, a standing clothespin,
Fifty-six people, plus a happy grin.

Regular purchasers of the "I Spy" series of books may want to pass on I Spy Gold Challenger because its 12 object-filled colour photos have all appeared in seven previous "I Spy" books published between 1992 and 1996. A cover note claims, however, that the book contains "new and challenging [rhyming] riddles." Children can lose themselves in the detailed, double-page photos without ever engaging in the search. Because there is no answer key, children (and adults) will spend numerous hours trying to find all of the items cited in each "I spy" riddle. A fine book for a rainy day or a long car ride.

Recommended with reservations.

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

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

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - MAY 7, 1999.