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My children and I love search-and-find puzzle books. We enjoy
sitting together and exploring the illustrations for hidden objects. I
Spy With My Little Eye Baseball is a unique visual puzzle
book. Instead of searching for hidden objects, the reader searches
for differences between two photographs.
David Milne has created 14 challenging visual puzzles from his
own engaging baseball photographs and collages. The rhyming text
by David Milne includes clues about how many differences there
are and even a few specific changes to look for. Photo Facts are
sprinkled throughout the book, with information about the history
of baseball and its players. The photographic puzzles help train
the reader to focus on details and develop thinking skills. The
book has a nice mix of puzzle difficulty, with a range of 15 to
41 changes to discover in the photographs.
This is an addictive book. Anyone who sets out to solve a puzzle
is drawn into the book, and can easily lose half an hour (or more)
searching and counting. My 10-year-old son was especially drawn
to the sports theme, but we all found the puzzles to be an irresistible
challenge. Even as I write this review, I have to keep dragging
myself back from my own puzzle-solving to actually write.
I can't find anything objectionable in this book, and I believe
that any family with children who love sports or visual puzzles
would enjoy I Spy With My Little Eye Baseball. It is
a quality hardbound book with colorful photographs. I think this
would make an excellent book for long car rides, if your
child doesn't struggle with car sickness. Staring at the photographs
for too long gives me a headache, and I can only imagine it might
be magnified if I were riding in a car.
The book declares that it is "fun for all ages," and I definitely
agree! However, children between 2 nd and 7 th grade might enjoy
the photographic puzzles the most. It's a great gift idea and should
provide hours of problem-solving fun!
Product review by April Elstrom, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine,
LLC, June 2011
Another review:
Just after our young children attended their very first professional
baseball game, we read this wonderful book together! I Spy
with My Little Eye Baseball is a large-format, hardbound
book with lots of fun and interesting information about everything
related to baseball. Each two-page spread has what look like identical
photographs, but upon further inspection, you see that there are
numerous differences. To make searching for differences between
each set of photographs even more fun and challenging, the author
includes a notation on the page of the number of differences in
each photo set. So kids feel like they've really accomplished a
feat when they find all the differences!
The book is written ingeniously in a way that engages a wide range
of ages--from toddlers all the way through older elementary kids.
Each page includes a portion of a simple poem that continues throughout
the book to weave all the pictures into a baseball story perfect
for engaging young children. In addition, for older children, each
page also includes photo facts that detail really interesting baseball
information many children wouldn't know. For example, do you know
the history of the Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat Company? Do
you know the differences between a baseball mitt and glove? Do
you know why baseball players wear batting gloves and when they
started doing so? Do you know how much a major league baseball
weighs and what it's made of? Do you know which baseball trading
card is the most valuable? Do you know how modern-day mascots got
their start at baseball games? Now we do! And you can too when
you read this engaging and delightful book!
Product review by Karen Yuen, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine,
LLC, July 2011
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