FIND ME

Young fans of visual puzzles will enjoy this spot-the-difference enhanced e-book.

Attractive digital artwork—originally developed for the wordless app Find Me (Kisbo/Paddybooks, 2011)—features repeating designs of common objects, with an animal hidden on each page. Natale uses rhyming clues and a brief animation on each page to help young readers identify the hidden animals. A crocodile blends in among a collection of scissors; a dinosaur looks suspiciously like a teapot. These bright, colorful scenes are busy, but they are less frenetic than Walter Wick’s classic I Spy photo montages. When readers tap the hidden animal, they are rewarded with an amusing animated scene. Playful clues will entertain young readers, but they do not provide much substantive information about the animals. The woodpecker “might look like a shoe: bright, shiny, and sleek, / But rather than feet, it’s trees that he seeks.” The smooth narration emphasizes the rhythm and rhyme in a playful, natural way. The narrator is soothing but perky, just like a lovely preschool teacher. The app highlights an entire line of text at a time, which aids children who have moved beyond the initial beginning-to-read stages.

This cheery story will entertain young readers with pleasant rhymes, bright digital artwork and simple animated scenes.