Search and You Shall Find

Illustrating Where’s The Meerkat? ($9.99, Barron’s Publishing, ages 7 and up) must have been great fun for Paul Moran, Stevel Wiltshire and Simon Ecob, not to mention very time consuming! This entertaining and educational book can be described as Where’s Waldo meets a travel encyclopedia. Each two-page spread features a scene from a famous world destination, with one member of a (very cute) meerkat family hidden somewhere in the incredibly detailed, colorful picture. In a separate text box, written by Jen Wainwright, readers can learn a few important facts about the destination. In the back of the book are check lists, with specific items to look for on the pages, expanding the search way beyond the meerkat family.

I, for one, am now addicted to looking at the illustrations to find the meerkats and items on the checklist. What great fun that is! What’s better than a book that you can linger over like this with your children? I love the fact that the book teaches geography in a most clever and entertaining way. This would be a great book to take with you on a long car trip or plane.

Where’s the Meerkat has already been a bestseller in England. Now it has just been released in the U.S. and is sure to be a big hit here as well.

– Reviewed by Debbie Glade