Once Upon a Magic Book

by Lily Murray, Katie Hickey

Get ready for a fantastic search-and-find puzzle adventure through 13 magical worlds! In an old toyshop, Sophie and Jack find a dusty book with a glowing key. They turn the key and WHOOSH! They’re inside the book, at the start of a wonderful adventure. But how will they ever get out again? Follow them on their journey, from fairytale forests to pirate islands. Complete the puzzles on every page to help them escape the book … but watch out for the wicked witch!

Genres: Picture Books, Fairy Tales, Adventure, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

Published August 2, 2018

About the author

Lily grew up in the wilds of snowy nowhere, spending much of her time talking to animals and making up stories. She has continued to do this in her adult life, and now writes both fiction and non-fiction books for children. Her titles include big books about dinosaurs, rhyming books about dinosaurs and stories about escapee hot dogs. Follow Lily on Instagram and Twitter @lilymurraybooks

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful children's book that encourages children to take part in the story.

I love the concept!

[BrookesEducationLibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this book is beautiful, the illustrations are so colourful and full of detail! Following two children as they try to escape the pages of a magic book before they're captured by the wicked witch, you need to search and find the requested items from each page to make it to the end of this puzzle adventure!

[Sheri Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cute little book for kids! It flows nicely for kids to enjoy reading (or being read to) and is illustrated beautifully. Kids will love finding all of the hidden clues in the book to go on the adventure in the book with Sophie and Jack.

[Mr Bramley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An imaginative and beautifully illustrated twist on the traditional fairytale trope!

Two friends go on an adventure through the pages of a fairytale book, visiting every kind of traditional fairytale setting, trying to escape the witch before she can steal the key and get out of the book herself.

The book is an eye spy type book, with objects to find on each page so that the friends can progress and escape. The book is perfectly tailored for older children who love this kind of activity, which in my opinion is great and most eye spy books tend to be aimed for young children.

The book also ensures that the concept of characters and their morality is questioned and considered by the reader, and even ends with a question about what the reader thinks might happen next.

This would be a great book for teachers to use as a resource in class, with magical scenes that would be easy to create displays of, use for creative writing, or even for other subjects such as counting the missing objects or making a map of different environments in the book.

[Kristin Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting to like this more. The search and find feature made me task-oriented as I read so I wanted the giant, pirate, toy store owner, etc to be hidden on EACH page, not just some of the pages. Otherwise how do I know if I should keep looking or if they're simply not there? I needed more of an I Spy format: tell me exactly what to find on each page and I will find it. It was neat to spot Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood and gingerbread men on the pages, but again, I was expecting more.

[Buku Arutala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colorful and very entertaining book. It was fun to search and find the things in this book while following the plot story of this book with your children. But, the minus one of this book was some hidden things hard to find because they looked very small.

[Ig D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

MAGIC!

[Joyce Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun activity to do with your child.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A search-and-find with tons of easter eggs. The reader is the protagonist searching for fairy tale items and people to escape the wicked witch.