Look for Ladybird in Plant City by Katherina Manolessou (Children's, Picture book, Activity book, 10/10E)

 

 September 2017, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 32 pages, Hardback, Review copy 

Summary from Quarto 

Join in the hunt and help look for Ladybird! Daisy's pet Ladybird goes missing, so she visits super-sleuth Basil, the best detective in Plant City. Can he help her find Ladybird? Follow Daisy and Basil as they look for Ladybird all over Plant City. Is he in the museum, the fun fair, the train station, the school, the concert or the restaurant? 

Nayu's thoughts

This book is exactly my kind of search book, with so many characters to find. Each page has the same animals  to search for, then within the story for that page more animals need to be found. I didn't hunt for everything because it really would have taken a few hours (more if I then decided to find other animals eg see how many monkeys or crocodiles there are), but there is an answers guide on the back page if you get stuck. 

Everything including the atmosphere in the various animal places are vibrant and teeming with life. The way scenes are set is clever, using the environment to incorporate everyhing that we take for granted in life to be available for animals. My favourite scene is the The Restaurants-I loved the juice bar and the root pizza area which is sheer genius in terms of imagination, and also The Riverbank where everyone seemed super happy and occupied with having fun by the water. 

The only part I had a problem with was that there are quite a few snakes, which sucked becaiuse even though they were brightly coloured I was still afraid of them. That's why it didn't quite get full marks, which it does deserve. 

 Find out more on Katherina's website.

Suggested read

If you enjoy search and find books try the less cute Dinosaur Detective's Search-and-Find Rescue Mission by Sophie Guerrive (Children's, Activity book, 8/10E)