I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles

Rating:
Summary: i spy,,,find the time!
Review: find the time to share this book and play the game with yourchild! the artwork and photography is exceptional. my 6 year old and ihighly recommend it! every page is breathtaking and you'll be "hooked" once you start "spying". items are hidden in the pictures with ryhming hints to help you out!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully challenging
Review: I never heard of the I Spy books until my daughter dragged me to a book store. She picked up the xmas book and we sat there for an hour and only got through 3 pages. The pages are so pretty and contents challenging even to me. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: bridging generations
Review: I purchased this book for my 6 year old niece and also for my 30 year old daughter! It contains beautiful photos of ornaments, vintage bears, and Christmas scenes. Great fun for any age. A bargain at twice the price.

Rating:
Summary: Oh what fun it is to spy...
Review: If you're familiar with the I Spy series, you know what to expect in this book. If you're new to the world of I Spy, imagine staring in your fully stocked refrigerator looking for the Philly cream cheese. You know it's there - you just bought it yesterday - but for the life of you, you can't find it. Then your spouse comes by, reaches around you and grabs the tub from beside the two-liter bottle of Pepsi. I Spy is just like that: you know what you're looking for, you know it's in the picture somewhere, and some clown is bound to come by and find it immediately after you've been searching for a half an hour. That's why I recommend letting your spouse have first crack at the pictures. It makes your finding the specified objects a breeze.

The thirteen hide-and-seek pictures in the book all have - as you might suspect from the title - a Christmas theme. There's Santa's workshop, assorted sugar cookies and Christmas tree ornaments, shop window displays, and an arrangement of dolls and stuffed animals that looks a lot like something from the movie, E.T. Most images are set as cheerful tableaus, but several are avant garde arrangements of knickknacks, doodads, and Christmas goodies.

The riddles are challenging, not because they're cryptic but because they have you searching all over the page to find what you're looking for. I find it helpful to work on two or three elements from the riddle at a time. If you're looking for an ice cube, a twist of lime and a carrot-nose all at the same time you're bound to run into one of the three sooner or later. Plus it cuts down on the frustrating "ooh, I just saw that ... where'd it go?" moments. Once you've exhausted the riddles - and that should take a while - it's good to find a friend and play "I spy with my little eye something that begins with...." The pages are jam-packed with everything from angels to zebras, so you'll never run out of things to spy.

There are only a couple drawbacks to the book. First, the glare from the glossy paper can make it difficult to find anything on the page if the lighting isn't right. Second, there's no answer key. It's left to your own judgment as to whether you've found what you're looking for. There are times when you'll be looking for an object, say a jingle bell on the "Holly & Ivy" page, and you'll see something that looks less unlike a jingle bell than anything else on the page, but you're left wondering if you've actually found it or not. Granted, there are those who'd start with the answer page and fake their spying prowess, but for honorable souls there's no option to solemnly swear you've tried your best and then sneak a peek at the answers. Oh well, I guess it's time to let my wife have a look.

The pictures in the I Spy books are as incredible to look at as they are to search for the hidden-in-plain-sight objects. I Spy Christmas is an excellent choice to add to your collection or to start one with. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: This is one of the best Christmas books....
Review: My son (He's 6) and I enjoy this book very much. It is an adventure everytime we read it. The extra Credits are also very challenging...

Rating:
Summary: This is one of the best Christmas books....
Review: My son (He's 6) and I enjoy this book very much. It is an adventure everytime we read it. The extra Credits are also very challenging...

Rating:
Summary: bridging generations
Review: My son came home from the school library with this book the day before my Mother came for a weekend visit. He paid no attention to the book after arriving home until my Mother picked it up. Within a few minutes he, she, my stepfather and our younger son were totally engrossed in it and spent several hours poring over the pictures. I reminded the boys that they had another I Spy book in their room which they had never paid any attention to. They went flying to get it and all four of them had to be pried away from the book for dinner. My sons and my Mother had never really made a very warm emotional connection until they shared these books. That was several weeks ago and they still talk about it and my Mother is sending me pictures via e-mail of them solving the riddles in the books which I had taken with her camera. These books are a hit with everyone in my house.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for children from 5 to teens and adults too.
Review: The books in this series are wonderful. My child and I spend hours hunting for the hidden items in the pictures and making up our own riddles to solve.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book
Review: This book is great for little kids. When their friends come over and get hooked on these books you will wonder where they have gone. This book is also great for families.

Rating:
Summary: Fun for all ages.
Review: This book is most remarkable for wonderful photographs filled with Christmas treasures. Traditions fill the pages in the form of antique bears, ornaments, craft & decorating mess, and cookies. The vibrant colors on some pages are contrasted with muted tones on others. And the fun of each page is to find the rhyming objects, play your own I Spy game or just rev up the Xmas spirit!