BRIAN WILDSMITH'S AMAZING WORLD OF WORDS

by Brian Wildsmith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1997

Wildsmith (Saint Francis, 1995) enters the picture-search market long dominated by Waldo and the I Spy series. The premise is that a visiting alien, clad rather like a court jester and traveling in an extravagant Jules Verne fantasy of a spaceship, is landing on Earth and encountering for the first time its objects and creatures. Ten to twenty labeled objects and animals are illustrated around the margins of gloriously colored pen-and-ink drawings; every spread represents a different environment (space, ocean, town, market, dinosaur museum, playground, etc.), and all invite viewers to locate the border objects within the pictures. As usual with Wildsmith's work, the animals and birds are superb, but there are also some extraordinary renderings of buildings and machines, many recycled from his Give a Dog a Bone (1985, o.p.). For a younger group than the Martin Handford and Jean Marzollo/Walter Wick collaborations, this book is fully accessible to pre-readers. Opportunities abound for all sorts of recognition, from colors and shapes to bird species, types of musical instruments, and forms of transport, both modern and antique. Drawbacks: There's an index for which any use is difficult to imagine, and the tab cuts on the pages will become quickly dog-eared.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1997

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Millbrook

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1996

Categories: CHILDREN'S