Edward Gibbs

As many of the other reviews of I Spy With My Little Eye by Edward Gibbs note, I Spy remains a popular game and a popular type of book. Add in dye cut circles through the cover and pages, and I knew the book would be a hit with my daughter.

I Spy With My Little Eye with the bold, bright, in your face frog on the cover, states up front what this book is all about. It's a color concept book that also teaches older children a little something about each brightly colored animal revealed first show more through the I spy circle and then with a turn of the page.

The book was an instant hit with my daughter. She read it to herself numerous times and then read to me. The ending, though, was an unexpected and welcome surprise. The dye cut goes all the way through to the back cover, thus inviting children to spy their own animals. show less

Based on the children’s game, each phrase begins with the rhyme, “I spy with my little eye…” Peer through the circular cutout to see part of a sea creature – the tail of a seahorse, the claw of a crab, the tentacle of an octopus. Not only will the guessing game keep readers enthralled, readers will also count down from seven clown fish to one shark.

The text follows the simple repetitive pattern of the game, with additional hints in speech bubbles. Although books that use the I Spy show more game have been popular for years, I especially like this one because of the lively and playful illustrations. The digital illustrations use bright colors and collage like backgrounds. The illustrations have depth and perspective and are very pleasing to the eye. The circular cutout is the icing on the book design cake. It’s fun to look through the holes to guess the animal and equally fascinating to turn the page and see the cutout all but disappear as it lines up perfectly with the drawing on the previous page.

Full Review at Picture-Book-a-Day: http://picturebookaday.blogspot.com/2012/08/book-222-i-spy-under-sea-by-edward-g... show less

The overall message from this book is to provide a interactive and fun read while learning attributes about domestic pets. I really enjoy this because of three reasons, First, I love how the book is interactive and is a sort of game for it's young readers. Within the book, there are "peep holes" where students have to read the clues presented on the first page and getting a "peep" of what animal is being described. Super cute and fun way to get children to read and learn. Second, I liked how show more the text has a repetition of the phrase "I spy with my little eye...". This creates a common theme for the book and is great for a shared reading activity. And lastly I love how the main description words are in bold print. This will indicate to the reader that these words are important and key to helping them guess what animal is being described. show less

Looking at me from the bright cover of a small paperback book of 48 pages (excluding the covers) are a parrot, a Siamese cat, some goldfish, two rabbits, a chaffinch and a snake. Why am I still attracted to the old-style I-spy books of the 1960s? The edition of I-spy pets I have in front of me was published by Dickens Press in 1963. It retains its predominantly bright orange cover, is in good condition and has not been marked up by a small child.

Just the other day a small boy in short show more trousers ran along the platform at Ascot Station, racing the train I was on. When he got on and eventually sat down he started playing I spy with my little eye with his mother. He won every time. That happened when I was a child and I thought I was really clever.

The book’s pages are unnumbered and provide an illustration and some text on over eighty pets of all kinds. The illustrations are black and white sketches and none are colour. I am glad I found it on the 99p table in the Oxfam bookshop in Cirencester.

Of the pets mentioned and I described I have had:

A rabbit called Smudge and coloured black; Smudge was probably a Dutch rabbit rather than the smaller Netherland dwarf;

A guinea pig of the smooth-coated variety and called Prudence. Prudence died of constipation;

4 fish, most recently Mr Fish and Mr Fish II, formerly known as Pigeon, and as a child an unnamed goldfish and golden orfe;

An unnamed snail to keep the aquarium of the earlier fish clean;

Other than these, in great proximity and in the garage, have been some field mice. Suitable poison and/or a cold winter did away with them.

I would like to have had a slow worm as a child and I did keep a few newts for a short time and 2 frogs. Unfortunately for the frogs I forgot about them under the closhes in the back garden on a baking hot day. They were roasted alive while I was at school.

This little book that I am holding in my right hand in Caffè Nero in Cirencester, while I tap in these letters with my left, has triggered all these memories.

I remember all the postcards sent to Mr Fishes 1 and 2, about 150 of them and never a reply.

I can see Smudge, a handsome but vicious brute, who chewed his way out of his hutch and burrowed underground in our garden.

Beyond these memories another feature of interest with regard to this particular book is a circular label on the front cover showing the price of 9d and carefully placed over the original price of 6d. That represented a hefty increase of 50 per cent taking the cost in decimal money up from 2.5p pence up to 3.75 pence. Having to pay 99p for it now may now seem to make it less of a bargain.

A more detailed analysis of the book and its contents may help me identify the date at which the price went up from a tanner to ninepence.

On the back page there is a list of I-spy books, followed by the wording ‘In black and white - sixpence each’. Someone has attempted to delete the words ‘sixpence each’. Pets is 27th on the list, followed by On the pavement (I loved that one), Churches and People, indicating that the price uplift must have been made after the publication of I-spy people and I-spy fish and fishing, the last on the list of I-spy books in colour also on the back cover. The colour ones cost a shilling. show less