My daughter and I both love this one. The rhymes suggest simple ways to pretend to be an animal and always leave room for the imagination with "what else can you do like a cat?" questions. The illustrations are charming in their portrayal of children engaged in pretend play. They are also multicultural in a natural, low-key way. I think this would be great to read to a group of children in a pre-school classroom.

It's an excellent first discovery book. It tells you a lot about the Amazon Rain forest and the river basin.

This book shows children the rain forest plants and animals and things destroying this area today. It has many colourful pictures, some on transparent flip pages. From lazy lizards to beautiful birds, from chattering capuchins to wet water lily, this book shows some of the rarest species living in the rain forest.

This book would be excellent for children under the age of eleven.

"My favorite book" from the lips of a child is the best review. This is the first book that my daughter has read over and over, and then asked me to purchase it for her. Robin of Bray is one of a series of books in Dial's Easy to Read series. It is a fantasy for children, a fairy tale with all the trimmings in vocabulary that is just right for the early reader. The simple vocabulary is enhanced by the illustrations that help to tell the story. Robin is a little boy that doesn't know who he really is, but he wants to be a magician. Without giving away the ending, Robin of Bray turns out to be someone very special. My enthusiasm over Robin of Bray comes out of seeing the joy of reading on my child's face for the first time and knowing that this will be one of the books that she will look back upon as one of "those special little treasures".

I first read this book, when I was in the second grade. I was having trouble reading. I loved this book so much that I read over and over and eventually I became a strong reader. This is a great book that anyone who likes soccer will love. I am now in the sixth grade, love reading, and this is still one of my favorites. My favorite part of the book has always been when the second graders scrimmage the third graders. If you would like to find out who won, you should read this superlative book, Soccer Sam.

My two-year old daughter reached to pet the puppy and smell the flowers in the book every time we read it together.

Our son, who just turned five, was so eager to learn how to read. After a half-hour with our friend (who is a teacher), he had memorized the story and was ready to surprise us as he "read" this book. The pride in his face was indescribable.

My daughter was sent this book for Thanksgiving two years ago. She loves cats so it appealed to her - but its a very sweet tale about how the cats work together to grow and harvest their food and then how they prepare it and share it; all done in a rhyming mannner. This is a great story.

My 5 year-old godson is absolutely enchanted by this book. It is his absolute favorite and the first thing wants when he comes over. It has been a source of countless evenings of entertainment for our family. The layout and photography of each page is very creative. This book is one that can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, over and over again!

I have been a fan of Walter Wick's photographs and Jean Marzollo's rhymes since I was nine years old and my school friends and I huddled over the mat at school trying to find all the hidden items in the pages. Now that I'm eighteen I still love these books, not so much for the riddles but for the amazing and merticulous photographs, some of which just *beg* to have a story written about them (such as 'The Ghost in the Attic' photograph on pages 14-15). Each photograph has some sort of an enigma or mystery involved in it, whether it be messages written in the letters on building blocks, lost puzzle pieces or clues to a secret birthday party.

A complaint was made that 'I Spy Mystery' has no story to it. This is because this book was one of Wick/Marzollo's earlier editions, and it is only with their latest books - 'I Spy Spooky House' and 'I Spy Treasure Hunt' that they add a plot thread. But there is a theme in the other books, and this one is obviously 'mystery'. Each photograph is intriguing, and each riddle has a specific object to find that harks back to many old mystery and adventure books that you may have read as a child, whether it be 'the missing key to the chest', 'proof that the cat knocked over the can', 'the stolen diamond ring' or 'the pirate's X'. These types of clues add an extra dimension to the pictures and children will be more drawn into the hunt for the objects in the pictures, and as I mentioned before there is no end to the inspiration the photographs create - these are the perfect books to use to kindle a child's imagination.

It isn't just the riddles at the bottom of each page that will keep you occupied, there are more mysteries to be found at the back of the book: riddles that have to be matched to the photos, a charm bracelet that had its charms scattered throughout the pages, a cat that can be found in every page and a heart shaped box that's lost all its contents - these too are concealed throughout the book.

All in all, this is one of the better 'I Spy' books - in particular the photographs 'The Birthday Hunt', 'The Golden Cage', 'The Ghost in the Attic' 'The Secret Note' and 'Chain Reaction' are particularly well made.

P.S. (spoiler) To the reviewer who had trouble finding the 'dolphin' in the photograph 'The Naughty Kittens', it can be found on page 24 in the large tree. Look closely at the green on the right-hand side and you can see that it frames the blue shape of a dolphin against the blue background.

These pictures are so great. Have fun with your grand-children or your children. These books are very mesmorizing. I own all the copies and I am anxiously awaiting a new arrival.

I HAVE NUMEROUS "I SPY" BOOKS. MY THREE KIDS AND MYSELF LOVE THEM ALL.THEY ARE SO MUCH FUN...INDIVIDUAL OR FAMILY FUN.ONCE YOU START,IT'S HARD TO PUT THE BOOK DOWN UNTIL YOU FINISH THE LAST PAGE. HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR EVERYONE OF ANY AGE!

We own six of the I Spy books and love them. My children are not young, 19, 17, and 10 and yet we all love searching and doing the extra riddles in the back. We particularly love how all of the pages are interelated in this book. But where is the ruler on the shipwreck page? We are still looking! A great fun book for everyone.

I didn't pay much attention to the "I Spy" books until I bought one for my niece. I thought it was strictly a children's book, and I only bothered looking at it to make sure it contained nothing objectionable. Ten minutes later, *I* was hooked! So now I have several for my 3-year-old niece and several that I'm "holding" for her.

"Treasure Hunt" is my favorite "I Spy" because the pictures relate to each other and when followed tell a story. "Spooky Night" also does this. The rest just seem to contain pictures that follow the theme given in the title but don't relate to each other. The challenger books don't have original pictures; they use the pictures from the themed books and give them new, supposedly harder, riddles.

In my opinion, the earlier books are the easiest and the later books are quite a bit harder (and maybe more suitable for older "children").

I personally prefer the themed books to the challengers and the later books to the earlier, but I heartily recommend any, or even all, of the "I Spy" books.

This was the #1 request on my wish list for my 2 year old son. Not only can he study the pages to find animals, trucks, and toys, I can keep occupied by the riddles. He cannot find the difficult objects, but enjoys the colors and looking for the more obvious things. All of these books are excellent. They increase concentration and problem solving. They are great for 2 years to 100 years.

This book has been the source of hours of mind-stretching entertainment for my children and several hours of frustration for me. The puzzles are difficult, yet not impossible and there is nothing better in improving your powers of intense observation. They can be enjoyed by all children approximately eight years of age and older. I highly recommend it.

i think the i spy series should have more than 5 stars. it deserves 100 stars! i like them because of the photos and picture riddles, those are both cool. you should definitely try to collect these books because they're SO neat. keep 'em coming, marzollo & wick! and thanks for making such great books. p.s. these books are GREAT for road trips!