Customer Reviews

Where's Waldo? The Wonder Book

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first got turned onto Waldo books while in college. I was working at a small bookstore, and spied a paperback of Where's Waldo? in Hollywood. I've had it all these years, but recently brought it out of the basement for my 7 year old son. He was thrilled with that book, so I got him Where's Waldo?: The Wonder Book in hardback for Christmas.

While the Hollywood book is difficult, The Wonder Book also has some difficult scenes! In one, I STILL haven't found Wizard Whitebeard. Arggh!

Martin Handford is the creator of the Where's Waldo? books, which features elaborately detailed scenes, hidden objects, and visual puns. The reclusive, bespectaled author works fervently for EIGHT WEEKS for EACH of the 2-page spreads on these books. This means that the Where's Waldo Wonder Book took him 1.8 years to create! Amazing!

My son and I love to pore over the pages--not only looking for Waldo, Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, and Woof--but also other clues. For example, Wenda always loses a camera, Woof a bone, the Wizard a scroll, and so on. BUT, at the end of the book, there are TWO pages of checklists for other things to find in EACH of the visual puzzles! Some are quite hard to find. For example, a clown follows Waldo and his friends all through the end of the book. One of the challenges is to find the scene in the book where the clown changes the color of his hat band.

The creative scenes you'll find in the Wonder Book include:

*Once Upon a Page
*Clown Town
*The Fantastic Flower Garden
*The Odlaw Swamp
*The Might Fruit Fright
*The Corridors of Time
*The Game of Games
*The Battle of the Bands
*Toys! Toys! Toys!
*Bright Lights and Night Frights
*The Cake Factory
*The Land of Woofs

Odlaw Swamp and Land of Woofs are *especially* tricky, because all the characters look the same...except for one defining element.

As with all the Waldo books, there's also some great visual puns that will tickle adult funny bones. Make no mistake...the Where's Waldo? series isn't just for kids! I love searching for the characters and items as a way of relaxing and enjoying my son's company.

Highly recommended!

This is another excellent Where's Waldo -- almost as sublime as "The Fantastic Journey", a little harder, and just as engaging. As a piece of artwork it's clear that Handford's style is maturing: his lines are more precise, there are more individuals packed into every open space, and there's also a slightly more vibrant color palette. Unlike the other four Waldo books, these twelve scenes are printed digitally. Each miniscule pixelated line edge can be seen upon close inspection, a little disconcerting at first but very crisp and clear -- and probably one reason for Handford's new stylistic developments here.

I must have skipped over the exact measurements of the book if they were listed. With no point of reference in the photos, I assumed this was going to be a normal sized book and the magnifier was only needed because there was so much packed in to the pages. But this thing is SMALL. If you get this, just make sure to keep in mind it is only 6-inches by 5-inches. And from my memory of it when I gave it to my niece, those measurements may be generous. It's exactly what you expect to get in a Where's Waldo book (a bunch of pictures and things to find) but I wrote this review to emphasize it is really, really small. If I had known this when I bought it, I would have gotten one of the normal-sized books.

"I like Waldo. I like the book Where's Waldo. I like all the pictures. There are all these little people running around and you have to find Waldo in all of the pictures. It's hard, but that's good. That's it."
-Adele, Age 5 (who thiks it might be good for 5 to 9 year olds.)

Bought this book as a gift for my MIL and she was very excited about it. She said it looked nice and it was still challenging for her. Everyone had a good time playing Where's Waldo!

I had some Waldo books when I was a kid and recently got a couple for my daughter. She loves them and I STILL love them. A fun activity that we can do together. Some of these are pretty tough!! :)

Where's Waldo books have been around for a long time and let's face it, they aren't just for kids.

My 11-year-old son wanted this one but I've found myself looking through it in an effort to find Waldo and the other characters hidden on every page of this infuriating book.

I just can't imagine drawing all the details included on each page but they are there and they are fun to look through. Each page not only requires you to look for Waldo but Wenda, Woof's tail and Waldo's alter ego, Odlaw. There are also other tidbits to figure out on each page once you've found all the characters.

I did not get the mini version but a full sized paperback.

A great gift book for children ages 5-15 (and a few adults too!).

When they say "mini edition" they mean it. Our child is really into seek and find style books and he still enjoyed it, but I did think it would be a bit larger of a book for the price. Regardless, Where's Waldo is always creative and fun and the book was still very detailed.

This book is bigger than i expected which makes it easier to look for Waldo. I dont think you need any extra accessories for it. You just gotta look closely and get ready to go crazy because you will have trouble finding Waldo lol. I recommend this book!

I also did a research on why the book was banned.
(Where's Waldo?" was challenged because in the Beach Scene, one kid is about to throw a bucket of water on a sunbathing woman who has untied the top of her bikini)

The characters are so small I dont think this is a big deal.

This is your average Where's Waldo book - only in a miniature scale. You need to have a magnifier when looking, otherwise it really is just one big mess. The one I bought on Amazon was used and didn't come with one.