I Spy (Book)

Marzollo, J., & Wick, W. (1997). I Spy: Little book. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Format: Board Book
Interest Level: Baby to 3 years
Subjects/Themes: Puzzle, Board Book

Book Information: The I Spy book is based on the old children’s “I Spy with my little eye” game. The reader is prompting by riddles or lists, often written in rhyme, to find the different objects hidden within a picture. The reader is prompted to look for two items per picture with the picture of each item shown with the text making it a great vocabulary tool. This also makes it unnecessary for the child to be able to read words and yet still enjoy the book making it age appropriate. In its board book format, this series also helps a child learn to read from left to right. The left page has the text with the matching pictures while the right hand page has the picture search.

Personal Thoughts: I think these books are absolutely wonderful! The use of pictures of real objects are a fun way to help teach a child to identify different objects and their spelling.  A great choice for children developing their sight word recognition skills.

Series Info: Adapted from the I Spy Picture Book series by Jean Marzollo & Walter Wick.
Website: http://www.scholastic.com/ispy/books/index.htm (Retrieved September 5, 2010).
Similar materials: Sheppard, K. (2010). Animal I spy: What can you spot?. New York, NY: Kingfisher.