I Spy Extreme Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles [Hardcover]

Jean Marzollo (Author), Walter Wick (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: I Spy

With 24 million copies sold, the bestselling I Spy series is being relaunched with new designs and foil covers.

This bestselling book features a collection of favorite I Spy riddles that send readers searching 12 photographs for hidden objects.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After mastering the many I Spy books and then moving on to conquer the tougher-riddled I Spy Gold Challenger, kids begged Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick for an even greater challenge. Naturally, this creative team rose to the occasion, creating the ultimate: Extreme Challenger! Open to any page and find a mind-boggling array of things: "a lobster, a pig, a guitar, / Two skulls, a button, a spring, a car." Wick's exceptional photographic skill renders every object crystal clear, whether on a blank white background or against a backdrop of dusty old bookshelves with antique toys, keys, clocks, and tools. Marzollo's rhymes are straightforward yet clever, matching "an ace" with "a missing bottle's space," and "puffball shoes" with "sad blue ooze." Children will have so much fun "I spying," they won't even realize they're developing their visual discrimination ability, as well as their reading and vocabulary skills! Extra credit riddles at the end of the big, colorful book provide an additional test of readers' nimbleness, and the authors also encourage children to write their own rhyming picture riddles based on the illustrations in the book. Okay, all you eagle-eyes out there, have at it! (Ages 3 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Walter Wick's previous delectable photographic feasts for the eyes will gobble up the I Spy Extreme Challenger!: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo. The volume includes a stunning spread of "Odds and Ends" (from the original I Spy) and a composition of gorgeous antique playthings in "The Toy Box Solution" (from I Spy Mystery). (Scholastic/Cartwheel, $13.95 40p ages 6-10 ISBN 0-439-19900-X; Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Cartwheel; 1 edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 043919900X
• ISBN-13: 978-0439252447
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When I was young I was a reluctant reader. It was hard for me to sit still and read a book. I preferred activities that got me moving, like neighborhood ball games, bike riding, skiing, sledding, skating, climbing trees, and exploring the woods in Connecticut where I grew up.

I taught also myself to draw. I became fascinated with shapes, shading, and trying to make the objects in my drawings appear to pop out in 3-D. Later I became interested in photography. I took pictures in the woods with my camera, tinkered with equipment in the darkroom, and experimented with artistic effects.

Much later I became the photographer of the I SPY books, in collaboration with writer Jean Marzollo. I did more than take the pictures. I thought of ideas, sketched ideas, collected props, made props, built sets, arranged objects, hid objects, adjusted lights, and took a picture. Then I rearranged objects and took another picture -- sometimes over and over again.

I write as well as illustrate my own books now. In A DROP OF WATER, I combine simple text with clear photographs to explain science secrets of the everyday world. In WALTER WICK'S OPTICAL TRICKS, the everyday world is turned upside down with impossible objects, phantom images, and other perplexing illusions. With the CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? series, I continue the picture-puzzle tradition, taking readers on ever more amazing adventures of the imagination in their quest for hidden objects.

Happy reading!

Walter Wick

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun for the whole family!, November 13, 2000

By 

Emma (New Mexico, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Spy Extreme Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles (Hardcover)

I got this book for my six year old son and he is having a wonderful time trying to find all the items from the riddles. This is one book he actually wants to read on his own. My husband and I went through it after he went to bed and there is just one thing in the whole book that we just can't find....the 8th H.....help?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides hours of intense, enjoyable effort., November 19, 2001

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: I Spy Extreme Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles (Hardcover)

This book has been the source of hours of mind-stretching entertainment for my children and several hours of frustration for me. The puzzles are difficult, yet not impossible and there is nothing better in improving your powers of intense observation. They can be enjoyed by all children approximately eight years of age and older. I highly recommend it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good "Greatest hits", April 5, 2001

By 

R. Walton (New Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Spy Extreme Challenger! A Book of Picture Riddles (Hardcover)

As others have mentioned, the "Challenger" books compile photos from other I Spy books. I'd say the riddles in this one are a little more difficult than the riddles that accompany the pictures in the original books. The clues tend to be for smaller, more obscured, or otherwise more difficult-to-find items in the pictures, so they are a little more challenging. Therefore still worth getting, I think, even if you have some of the original books.

We and our kids (Almost 4, and 1 1/2 years) love them, but one thing I'd say for small kids is that some of the pictures tend to be a little spooky (creepy clowns, skeletons, etc.). It seems to bother them less than I think it would, but if your kids are particularly sensitive...

Overall, the I Spy books are excellent and highly recommended!