I Spy a Butterfly

I Spy Readers

by Jean Marzollo, Walter Wick (Photographer)

See the picture.

Read the clue.

Play I Spy.

It's fun to do!

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Jean Marzollo was an American children's author and illustrator best known for the I Spy series, a best-selling and award-winning collection written entirely in rhythm and rhyme and illustrated by Walter Wick. Over her career, she wrote more than 100 books for children, parents, and educators, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, The Little Plant Doctor, and Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated from the University of Connecticut and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught high school English and later worked in educational publishing, serving for 20 years as editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out Magazine. Later in life, she began illustrating her own books.

Reviews

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a lovely I Spy book that is fun an engaging for your young readers, this book is excellent! I grabbed this book as a birthday gift for a little family member and it is sure a hit! I highly recommend using this as a learning to read resource or for just some fun game time!

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sick of this book. I am going to be pulling my hair out tonight when Scoutie toddles over and says, "Book!" and then clambers up onto my lap and I get down to reading it to her.

I love having her on my lap and listening to her try to form the sounds to all the words I read, especially as she struggles with her "s" sound, and I really love the smooches she demands every time she finds one of the clues in Walter Wick's big pictures (and I really dig his photos), so there are some things to like about I Spy A Butterfly

But Jean Marzollo's writing is basically crap. Sometimes she rhymes and sometimes not. Sometimes she nails her meter and sometimes not. And then there are annoying punctuation errors, like her misplaced apostrophes, which drive me mad (and bring out my permanent marker for a bit of homemade editing).

Whatever. My baby girl loves this book, and her love saves this book from the compost. So it's okay. I will read it, and try to keep as much of my hair as possible.

[Samantha Issa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual feast. Walter Wick - the photographer who I think created all the sets and layouts - is such a great artist. My favorite page was the yellow-y alien/desert landscape. I grew up with these kinds of "sets" in picture or how-to books, so this was a nice throwback. I also remember that old Go Fish! card game from I Spy we used to have and I would bring it to theatre class to play with my friends... the I Spy series just captures the wonder we used to have as children, and in my past as a kid, inspired me to greater wonder.

As for the riddles, well, I don't remember much about them in this book except that I thought they were witty sometimes and fit well with the images. I'll have to reread to review them (haha), but this book is worth having for the package of images and the search-and-find activity the riddles push the kids into doing.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

SMART 2018 - the I Spy books are a favorite of my 3rd grade reluctant reader. A bit of reading, but not so challenging that he feels discouraged.

[Mellanie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love I Spy books! They’re especially good for working with a small group of kids to develop their vocabulary.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another little I Spy book. I enjoyed trying to remember which big books the pictures came from, including a couple from Spooky Mansion!

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A last easy I spy for Maddie and I.

[Absmagabs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why am I so bad at these

[Tom Holehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful learning tool for the younger set.

[Rochelle Sondae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this series of I Spy books because they are just right for travel...not to big and not to small. I was a little tripped up by the activity pages in the back. I couldn't always distinguish which words were supposed to rhyme or match. For instance: "I spy two matching words. bright yellow hat, heart, red-and-yellow star" I guess the word they are going for is "yellow" however since it is in part of a description for two very different things it didn't seem like it was the right answer.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course this book is okay, its just for little kids. I couldn't give it 1 star. This is certainly a book for level 1 readers but the I spy in the picture part is more of a intermediate I spy person.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much reading but the kids love it.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another easy I Spy book which is great for the early reader. My 3 & 4 year old loved it!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a large volume with 4 I Spy books together. Tommy loves these, and he has very good visual discrimination. He also likes to find errors in the books.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really is fun to do. The I Spy computer games are also fun to do, just in case you know a kid who's crazy for this sort of thing.

[Annette Taylor-james · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures are bold this book can be placed in the art area could also be good for read aloud. Vocabulary building or just exploring and identifying new objects.

[Nola · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always ... Fabulous!