118. Where's the Meerkat? Illustrated by Paul Moran, Steve Wiltshire and Simon Ecob

Where's the Meerkat? Illustrated by Paul Moran, Steve Wiltshire and Simon Ecob
Published July 2012 Hardie Grant Egmont

From the publisher:
Join this fantastic, fun-loving family of meerkats as they go on an incredible round-the-world adventure. Whether they're visiting Paris or the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China or the Great Barrier Reef, there are ten cheeky critters to spot in every picture.

This week we have had penguins, now it's time for the meerkats.

Every body knows Where's Wally.  They have been around for years and are still as popular as ever.  Now there is a new title to take out the prize for favourite 'look and find' book...because everyone loves meerkats!



This book is a bit of a mystery due for release in July, yet it arrived to us this week, it is also copyright 2011, but is supposed to be a 2012 release, whatever the case, it is new to us and I am including it.  It is, some may think, a bit of a cheat, as there is very little reading involved, and I did question it's validity myself...but it's meerkats...so how could i not highlight it.

At the beginning of the book, we are given our mission, to find 10 meekats in each picture.  We are also introduced to the 10 meerkats. After that we move on to the double page spreads where the meerkats are hiding.  Each double page is a scene from a different country.  There's Thailand, Australia (twice!), China, USA, Italy, UK, Russia to name a few.  

When I first started searching i thought that it was pretty easy, I manged to get to 8 in not much more than a minute, but then I really had to look.  Some of the meerkats are very obvious, occasionally there are just heads and they are tricky to spot, but there are a couple on every page that are really tricky, so it is quite a challenge.  Challenging for me anyway, I am yet to test it out on a child.

As well as searching for the meerkats I think children will enjoy looking at all of the people in each scene, as there are lots of funny things to spot.  There is actually a list of extra things to look for on each page at the back of the book, as well as the solutions to where the meercats are hiding.

Meerkat lovers will really enjoy this variation on Where's Wally (Waldo for those in the US)

Who will like this book: Boys and Girls age 5+
Read it if you like: Where's Wally