Where's Waldo?: The Spectacular Spotlight Search by Martin Handford
Published by Candlewick Press (MA) on October 2nd 2018
ISBN: 1536201766
Pages: 16
Goodreads

I was excited to see a new “Where’s Waldo” book, since I loved them as a kid, but this is actually just a repackaging of several old Waldo scenes with a new gimmick. The scenes are now printed on a dark-tinted plastic (that almost look like x-ray slides) and you are given a “Spotlight Searcher” to slide underneath the image and brighten up a small part of the scene. The “Spotlight Searcher” is just a black wand with a large white circle on one end and a small white circle on the other. When slid underneath the darkened transparent plastic scene, the white circles brighten up the images (by providing a white background, rather than a black one). This does look a bit like a spotlight zooming around the scene and kids will probably have fun using it to find Waldo and his friends. Aimed at children ages 5 through 9, the scenes have a lot of tiny detail to sort through. The book gives you several things to find in each page, so it can be revisited to find more items. If you already have most of the Waldo books, I would not bother purchasing this one. I do not recommend it for libraries because if the “Spotlight Searcher” gets misplaced, it will be very difficult for anyone to use the book.

Reviewed by Kate Radke, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook