Growing a Reader: Kids' Books, Tips and More

I was very excited to receive my latest hold, Fairy Tales Search & Find, because my daughter and I had so much fun with the first of the series, Animal Fun Search & Find. Fairy Tales Search & Find is a picture puzzle book with over 500 fairy tale objects to find, and encourages preschoolers to count from one to ten, expand their vocabulary, and learn more about fairy tales.

The illustrations by Stephanie Hinton are vibrant and animated, accompanied by short lists of objects to find. One of the things I love about these books is how children pore over the little details. For example, my daughter's favourite animals from Animal Fun, the owls and reindeer, reappeared in this book, but weren't included on the "find" list, compelling her to look for more recurring characters.

Snow White scene from "Fairy Tales Search & Find". Can you spot the owl and reindeer?

These books provide a bounty of storytelling prompts. Here are a few I could think about just by looking at the photo above:

• How does the Queen feel? Why do you think she feels that way?
• What could be locked inside the wooden boxes? How did it get there?

Another series of search and find puzzle books that are fun for younger kids are by Walter Wick, called Can You See What I See?
 

Wick has also teamed up with Jean Marzollo to produce the best-selling I Spy series of picture riddle books for older kids:

For the advanced seeker, there's the classic series, Where's Waldo? This one's tough, even for adults!

Have your kids read every search-and-find and picture puzzle book out there? Then it's time to create your own at home! Here's a detailed article about creating your own I Spy Photo Book.

Not up to creating a whole book? Gather a few items together that are similar in colour, arrange them together, and take a photo. I whipped up a quick example (see photo below) using stuff scavenged from my desk. Give your kids a list of items to look for in the photo and see how many they can find. Bonus points to you if you can make the list rhyme! To add an extra challenge, set a timer to see how quickly they can find everything. Then, invite them to turn the tables on you and create I Spy puzzles of their own for you to solve!

Can you find: some staples, a spider and a mini KitKat; a nail file, a pencil and 7 thumb tacks?