3

Very cute ISpy book. My toddler is obsessed. We read it about 5 times a night. "Plum! Plum!"

This is an "I Spy" book. On one page it says, "Each peach pear plumb, I spy Tom Thumb," and on the following page you are to find Tom Thumb hiding among the fruit trees.

This is a wonderful exploration story. The illustrations are complicated making it more challenging for the littlest ones to find the hidden object. There are many fairy tale characters throughout the book including Cinderella, the three bears and Robin Hood.

This book was originally published in 1978 so it does not follow the same standards we see for today's books written for toddlers. This book is written for a more mature audience. With that understanding, I have to rate this book as three stars for the following reasons; Violence occurs more than once. Little bear trips, his gun goes off and he shoots down the baby basket from the tree. Also, Robin Hood shoots an arrow at the Wicked Witch. The picture of Jack and Jill has a menacing Wicked Witch behind the bushes waiting to attack the children.

I know these are all fairy tale characters and original fairy tales can be quite violent. But I would not write an illustrated version for toddlers. Can you imagine and illustrated version of the original Cinderella in which the sisters cut off parts of their feet? So yes, this is a classic, Janet Ahlberg writes amazing stories, but this book no longer fits the place it was originally written for. It would work as an early reader for k-1 since the words are simple and repetitious.

Not your typical "I Spy". My step-daughter loved it.