Look-Alikes [Hardcover]

Joan Steiner (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Welcome to the land of Look-Alikes, where the more you look, the more you see! Artist Joan Steiner has used everything from acorns to broccoli to yardsticks and zippers to create this striking three-dimensional world. Stop in at the Sweet Shop and sit down on a chair built of pretzels and crackers, or stroll through the park, where pennies are cobblestones and a shoehorn become a slide. With more than a thousand look-alikes to find, this book is sure to have puzzlers of all ages poring over its pages for hours on end.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Come along! Jump aboard! Grab hold of my hand. / We're crossing the border into Look-Alike Land." So invites the opening lines of Joan Steiner's Look-Alikes, a three-dimensional miniature metropolis that's meticulously, ingeniously crafted out of everyday objects from mousetraps to milk bones. At first glance, a fancy hotel lobby seems just that, but take a closer look and you'll see a sofa made of gloves. In a sunny street scene, a building façade is laden with crackers, crayons form fence posts, and the tree is shaded by a stalk of broccoli. Children and adults alike will love poring over each picture, most of which contain more than 100 objects cleverly arranged to delight and deceive. Kids will easily identify many household objects, and the ones they may not recognize--a hosiery garter or flour sifter, for example--they'll learn from either the guide in the back or from a helpful parent. Good humor, a keen eye, and hours of hard work went into this visual marvel, which should be equally captivating for artists and I Spy fans. (Ages 5 to 105) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly

In this dazzling debut, first-time picture book author/artist Steiner employs clever visual puns to create a whimsical parallel world. Using found objects, she painstakingly assembles three-dimensional collages that re-create everyday scenes, then photographs the results. What ensues is a tour de force of trompe l'oeil. Pistachio nuts on stems form a bouquet of "tulips" in a hotel lobby scene, where a tiny guest sits cozily on a "couch" made from a pair of cupped gloves. A city skyline reveals a modern skyscraper composed of a stack of CDs; two doors down a cowbell perched atop a vintage cookbook mimics the architecture of an earlier era. Dog biscuits laid end-to-end form the brick-like facade of yet another building, while at a park, a shoehorn "slide" and a sandbox made from an inverted tambourine abut a "water fountain" that's really a shell perched atop a chess piece. In this world where nothing is quite what it seems, slices of bread pave a sidewalk; infant pacifiers double as gaslights; pretzels affixed to round crackers become chairs at an old-fashioned soda fountain. Readers will pore over the enchanting visual similes, nearly 100 in each scene, in their attempts to detect each one. There's even a key at the end that offers a complete list of the look-alikes, to ensure none are overlooked. The amount of work that went into each tableau is staggering; the end result sheer delight. Bursting with creativity, this work of visual genius will set imaginations soaring. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Megan Tingley; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316812552
• ISBN-13: 978-0316812559
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I think this works better as a coffee table book, August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Look-Alikes (Hardcover)

I bought this book for my nephews and niece (ages 11, 9 and 4) who came to visit this summer. I was so excited at purchase! The incredibly clever scenes take hours to comb through, and you really view a lot of these objects differently after seeing the book. (Buildings made of fig newtons; thumbtack glassware at the soda fountain; an upside-down iron as a boat.)

However the actual children were a bit blown away. They looked at it and were interested, however many of the objects used were things they'd simply never seen and so couldn't pick out. What 4-year-old can tell that a bunch of tulips is really pistachios on sticks? Even the 11-year-old had never seen a flour sifter and therefore wasn't impressed by the sifter/water tower.

On the other hand, their mother (age 34) and my boyfriend (age 33) spent as many hours as I did on this book and are still delighted with it.

I personally collect beautiful children's books as a cost-effective alternative to coffee-table books. For my purposes, Look-Alikes is absolutely perfect.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beware! Do not buy if you don't have a few hours to spend!, January 23, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Look-Alikes (Hardcover)

Look-Alikes and Look-Alikes Jr. were show-stoppers at my house this Christmas. Poring over the pictures is an absolutely great activity that everyone, all ages, can join. The only problem we had is that there wasn't room for everyone to look at the book at the same time.

Something she doesn't say in the book but does reveal on the CD-Rom: these are photographs of actual dioramas, not photo- or Photoshop-collages. Amazing!!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waaaay better than 'Where's Waldo"!, June 12, 2000

By 

H. J. Wakenshaw "pootler" (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Look-Alikes (Hardcover)

The pictures in this book are just stunning, and so clever. I've had this book for a year now (we keep it in our bathroom) and I've still not found everything!

Each photograph is magnificent, and well taken, while the collages - for want of a better name - are really ingenious. Some objects take forever to find - the peanut pony tail, the mushroom car tires, and some are perfectly obvious, though you'd never have considered that a disposable razor could look like a vacuum cleaner. It's beautiful to look at and fun to explore. If only Steiner had left it at that and not tried to write poetry to go with it. The rhymes are unbelievably inane and stilted and take away from rather than add to the book.

This edition may actually be too difficult for children, as many adults seem to have trouble finding all the objects. "Look-Alikes Jr." came out soon afterwards and is much simpler, though just as much fun; much more suited to the under 12's and the less patient!

This book will last so long and provide so much enjoyment that it's well worth buying for the whole family.