When we were little, my sister and I got several magazines delivered to the house, Cricket, Ranger Rick, Penny Power, Muppet Magazine, Barbie Magazine to name just a few.  One was Highlights, which had stories and articles and crafts as well as regular features and puzzles.  One was a hidden picture puzzle:  A scene that at first looked normal but then if you looked closer, you could see things hidden in the pictures–a leaf that looks like a banana, a cloud that looks like a sheep and so forth.  You had to look carefully to find the different objects.  Later there were the Where’s Waldo books by Martin Handford.  My mom had a small plastic Waldo figure that she would hide in different places so young visitors could spot him

Bibliography: Steiner, Joan. (2003). Look-Alikes: Christmas. New York:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 978-0316811873

I first saw Joan Steiner’s Look-Alike books at the public library and they were amazing.  Scenes that at first look normal and real but then if you look closer, you realize that everything in the scene is made of something else.  And then the trick becomes spotting and naming all of those things.  I thought that these would be great for fans of Walter Wick’s I Spy series.  When I set out to choose books for holiday reading, I know I had to find Steiner’s holiday book to read and review.  I was not disappointed, I spent several hours studying the various scenes.  The first scene, a cottage covered in snow is astonishing, and I loved the Nutcracker scene.  The cathedral and New Year’s Eve fireworks though were jaw dropping in their intricacy and detail.

An added bonus is a section at the back of the book where Steiner includes a few activities for children to make their own “Look Alikes” as well as notes on how she comes up with and constructs her scenes.  Fascinating, and maybe enough to jump start creativity for young AND old.

After looking at this book, and online, I realize that we also had a jigsaw puzzle of one of Joan Steiner’s scenes, a general store I think, and was fun to put together and then try to find all the different things she had used to make the scene.  Several other puzzles are available, including the kitchen scene from this book.

Readalikes:  Walter Wick’s I Spy series as mentioned above, and books by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers who use fruit and vegetables to create scenes and stories.

Review Excerpt: “Eagle-eyed readers rejoice! There’s more to Christmas than meets the eye in Steiner’s latest Look-Alikes collection of astounding 3-D assemblages….A minimum of 100 objects makes up each of the nine settings (e.g., transporting the audience to a performance of the Nutcracker ballet, Santa’s workshop and an ornate cathedral where readers seem to stand before its stained-glass windows), and avid fans will want to seek them all.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from public library copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.