Can You See What I See? Blog Give-Away

Three of my grandsons came over the other evening with their daddy. The boys are 10, 8, and 5.  I had a copy of the new picture puzzle book "Can You See What I see? Toyland Express" by Walter Wick sitting out on my coffee table for this book review. The cover of the book was like a little boy magnet that pulled them all to it.

The colorful wood train set on the front is a real eye catcher. All three boys searched every page of the book together in one sitting! When they would get stuck on finding an object Papa would help them search for it. The little boy in Papa had already searched it's pages earlier in the week. I learned a couple of days later that little girls and big girls really like searching the pages of this book too.

The book follows the life of the toy train from the wood shop where it was built to the attic years later. It is fun to see how the train is brought back to life as a used toy in a new home following a yard sale. The train set takes on many transformations. It looks to me from one of the pages that a little girl once loved the train set too.

Walter Wick's award winning talents are amazing in this book. Adults will love the vintage toys found within it's pages and like I will marvel at the subtle hidden story conveyed through the detailed photographs in Toyland Express.  You can learn more about how the I spy, and Can You See What I See? search and find series came about here. You can check out a behind the scenes video here. It is a great little video for all ages! What do you think comes first when creating a new search-and-find book? The photograph or the search-and-find riddle? The answer is in the video.

I have seen first hand how much boys and girls, young and old,  love searching the pages of Toyland Express.  I know that it is going to be a well used book at grandma's house!

For a chance to win a signed copy of Can You See What I See? Toyland Express leave a comment on this post. One winner will be randomly chosen on Monday, November 28, 2011. Make sure I have a way to contact you if you happen to be the very lucky winner! Good luck.

(Prizing Courtesy of Scholastic Books)