Search and find books are a stroke of genius in my eyes and can get everyone from our toddlers to us adults involved.
They may well also be known as ‘Look and find books’ or ‘I spy books.’
Now, I’m pretty sure most of you will have heard of the famous search and find books ‘Where’s Waldo.’ These are pretty advanced in the search and find books world however the objective is the same for each.
Search and find books are wonderful interactive books for toddlers and other than being fun for our children, they have lots of benefits too which I’ll explain below.
The objects laid on each page to find amongst the images can also be improvised and changed around each time that the book is used. This will prevent repetitiveness and encourage the book to be used more often.
Benefits Of Search And Find Books
- Word Recognition: Search and find books are ideal for allowing our little ones to associate words and images. Seeing the images next to the word on each page will assist in their learning of new words.
- Improving Vocabulary: Vocabulary can come on leaps and bounds with these search and find books. Once our kids have got the hang of using this book, they will enjoy saying the words and asking mummy to find the items on the pages too.
- Encourages Reading: The search and find books encourage our kiddies to take a few moments to sit down and read/ interact. It melted my heart when I recently saw my 2.5 year old take the book off the shelf and have some independent quiet time finding the objects on the pages.
- Improves Memory: The more the books are used the better the memory and the quicker our young kids will be at finding the objects. It is important at this point to change and adapt the book’s use to avoid any repetitiveness and keep the book interesting for us all.
- Perfect Travel Book: An opportunity to bring the search and find books out to keep our kids entertained whilst travelling or even whilst out at a restaurant. It is a great way to keep their attention captured for longer than usual. Once finished using the book, why not try a search and find activity based on your surroundings- nothing beats a slight twist on the classic I Spy game.
11 Favourite Search And Find Books
- My First Search And Find Around The World By Kids-books
My favourite part about this book is that it shows different countries around the world therefore exposing our little ones to various cultures.
There are seven countries which represent each of the continents. I also love the colourful, bright illustrations!
2. Fun To Find By Krissy Bonning-Gould
This could be a good ‘first’ search and find book for our smaller children.
The illustrations on the pages are quite simple and will be easier for our little ones to find the particular objects.
It involves everyday places such as the grocery shop and park which is perfect for improving initial vocabulary.
3. Busytown Seek And Find Book By Richard Scarry
The Busytown Seek And Find book up’s the difficulty levels slightly by asking to find more than one of certain objects on the pages.
This allows our children to improve their counting skills while enjoying this book.
4. Wacky Wednesday By Dr Seuss
With a title with the word “Wacky” incorporated and the name Dr Seuss, it was always going to be a book slightly away from the ordinary.
This isn’t a typical search and find book where the objects to find are placed in a sidebar. Wacky Wednesday involves some more imagination from our kids to see what isn’t right in the images on each page.
I would recommend this book for slightly older toddlers and start by showing them an example yourself of something on the page that isn’t right.
5. Where Are You? By Sarah Williamson
A strangely satisfying book where the little worm needs to be found on each page with varying difficulty.
Sarah Williamson cleverly teaches prepositions to our children whilst searching for the worm.
6. Help! My Monsters Are On The Loose By Webber Books
Love, love, love the bright colours and illustrations of the monsters in this book.
The white background allows for those cheeky monsters to stand out and draw our kiddies attention to the book.
Fun names are even created for these little creatures that are hiding on each page.
7. Search The Zoo: Find The Animals By Bethanie Hestermann
These books are not only fantastic for playing the search and find activity which they are originally laid out to do, but are fabulous educational books too.
There is lots of information about each animal on the pages which our little ones will be sure to soak up and will be teaching us the new facts soon enough.
8. My Big Seek And Find Book By Roger Priddy
This book is recommended for older kids but some pages can be used for younger kids too then used again when older.
My partner actually purchased this book before my little girl was even born but she loves bringing it out to look at the colourful, fun illustrations.
This book comes with a pen and is wiped clean so is a fantastic interactive book which can be used in differing ways throughout the years.
9. The Lost House By B.B Cronin
This search and find book is very pleasing to the eye with each page being a different colour.
In terms of illustrations, it has a higher difficulty than the previously mentioned books.
We need to help grandad find his lost objects in the house.
This book is very flexible as it easily allows for other objects to be found rather than the written object in the text.
10. Where’s The Pair By Britta Teckentrup
Try to find two of the same animal on each page.
Although it is recommended from two years old, I would say it is actually better suited for children at least three years old.
There are many similar animals on the pages therefore trying to find the exact same pair could be quite difficult.
This search and find book has very pleasing illustrations not just for our kiddies, but also us adults!
11. Find My Favorite Things By DK
Of course a search and find book involves lots of interaction but this DK book encourages and prompts many questions to be answered.
This can lead to the opening of a conversation and improving speech for our younger toddlers.
