I Spy Ultimate Challenger: A Book of Picture Riddles [Hardcover]

Jean Marzollo (Author), Walter Wick (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2003 | Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: I Spy

It's the Ultimate Challenge: the most difficult riddles combined with the most incredible photographs--culled from the original I Spy books--to create the most intriguing I Spy book ever!

Think you know every I Spy book out there? Think you've found every last bauble, bow, striped cat, and cloudy ship?
Think again!
Jean Marzollo has written her most challenging riddles yet to accompany Walter Wick's fabulous photographs culled from the original I Spy books.
You've never seen I Spy like this!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Walter Wick's fun photos and Jean Marzollo's tricky riddles have returned in this I Spy "best of," a compilation of some of the duo's most entertaining "Where's Waldo?"-style visual scavenger hunts.

Kids and grownups should be amply entertained digging up hidden treasure from a dozen different two-page tableaus, like "Baking Cookies": "I spy a boot, five arrows, blue hair,/A deer, four flames, a little green bear;/Five white beards, two three-string guitars,/Six raisin eyes, and three treetop stars." Wick's detail-rich photographs span from the realistic--like The Rainbow Express (an excitingly in-progress train diorama) and Arts & Crafts (a craft table crowded with thumbtacks, pipe cleaners, and the like)--to the more surreal, like Inventor's Workshop, a confabulation of live electrodes and steaming test tubes.

Ultimate Challenger makes a fine introduction to the 20-plus-volume I Spy series (Treasure Hunt, School Days, and Marzollo gladly adds value here with two pages of brand-new additional riddles. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes

About the Author

Jean Marzollo grew up in Manchester, Connecticut. She taught in Arlington (Massachusetts) High School and Harvard's Upward Bound Program before moving to New York City where she became involved in educational publishing. For 20 years, she was the editor of Scholastic's kindergarten magazine, Let's Find Out. Marzollo has written many different kinds of books, including poetry and rhyming books, riddles, nonfiction, science books, sports stories, picture books, beginning readers, and books for preschoolers. "I like the challenge of writing simple prose about complicated subjects," she says. Marzollo lives with her husband, Claudio, in New York State's Hudson Valley. For more information about Jean Marzollo, visit scholastic.com/tradebooks and jeanmarzollo.com

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Cartwheel; First Printing edition (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439454018
• ISBN-13: 978-0439454018
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 9 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 (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,496 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

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More (and Less) of the Same, September 16, 2004

By 

C. T. Mikesell (near Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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

While there's nothing particularly wrong with this book, there's nothing groundbreaking, either. The pictures are taken from other books in the series, and while the riddles are new, they aren't any more difficult or involved than usual. Think of this as "ultimate" in the sense of "last in a series" (until the next one comes out), not "highest in degree or order, utmost or extreme" (definitions via WordNet).

In addition to this book, I also have the Spooky Night, Christmas, and Mystery I Spy books. Of the 12 pictures in this collection five come from those books (two each from Spooky Night and Christmas, one from Mystery). Also with only 12 pictures, "Ultimate Challenger" has one fewer picture than the Christmas and Mystery books. And because the pictures come from a variety of sources, there isn't even a "find the common element" usually present at the end of an I Spy book.

To be sure the pictures are creatively staged and the riddles occasionally make good use of word play (trunk: is that elephant, tree or luggage?), and there are the usual bonus riddles at the end of the book. Make sure you have a very good light source over your shoulder or head because the finish on the pages and lighting of some of the pictures can make the objects even harder to find.

If you're new to I Spy or don't have any of the books recycled here (check the Amazon Search Table of Contents for a list of the pictures, the Back Cover has, I believe, a list of the books involved), the "Ultimate Challenger" isn't bad - and it's more disappointing than terrible if you do have some of the books already. Just don't expect anything too incredible (either in terms of quality or quantity), or you'll be let down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Spy Ultimate Challenger, January 9, 2007

By 

auntpamiejayne "auntpamie" (Newton IA) - See all my reviews

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

The book is both challenging and interesting to all ages. I also like the size of the book and that it's a hard cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best I Spy book yet!, December 17, 2005

By 

Rowan "Rowan" (Meadville, Pa) - See all my reviews

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

I like this I Spy book best of all. Not only does it have some of the best scenes from some of the previous I Spy books, but it also has some cool new riddles. Various scenes include "Rainbow Express" From I Spy Fantasy, "A is for..." From I Spy School Days, and "Baking Cookies" From I Spy Christmas. I read this whenever I feel like I need to pass the time because it is so much fun looking for things.

Overall, 5 Stars. If you can find this book, buy it. It is top-notch fun!