The Hidden Bestiary

The Hidden Bestiary of Marvelous, Mysterious, and (maybe even) Magical Creatures

Judy Young

illustrated by Laura Francesca Filippucci 2009

In keeping with a hidden animal theme, here's another square book (making scanning for this blog tricky) that has great illustrations.  A 19th century explorer has discovered a broken case and something missing at the "Finchhaven Museum of Extraordinary Curiosities, Oddities and Improbabilities".  It's up to you to help find the hidden clues in the pictures from his travels around the world.  As he tracks down the animals on his list you must determine "Is it alive?  Is it extinct?  Did it ever exist?"

I love that this museum picture looks like The Wagner Institute!

Puzzle Island

Puzzle Island

Paul Adshead 1995

Madeleine and Henry were my first puzzle book lovers.  We've spent many hours reading this one.  (I had to take photos because the large square size of the book doesn't fit easily on my scanner.)  The instructions are given in the form of letters and a code around the outside of the pictures tells you which animals are hidden.  Some are harder to spot than others.  I wouldn't recommend it as a bedtime book (there's too much to think about and do), but it makes for a nice rainy day activity.

Usborne Puzzle Books

This is why books are my friends- there's no technical difficulties that can prevent you from enjoying a book.  Two weeks ago my computer died.  I'm still hoping the things on my hard drive (family photos, collections of vintage images, etc...) can be saved.  It's been a bit freeing to not have my computer at my elbow all the time.  And I've been plenty busy with other things, but it's frustrating when I want to list something on Etsy or update my blog.  I've been using my son's computer but he doesn't have Photoshop so I'm not able to scan book pages. 

My birthday is next month so I've "hinted" to my husband that a new computer would be nice.  For now I guess I'll just have to make do.

After Charlotte's birthday party a few weeks ago she got hooked on the Usborne Puzzle Books.  I had collected these for Madeleine and Henry and when they were little we spent many hours reading them and solving the puzzles.  Charlotte is 4 and they're perfect for her.  The mazes (which she loves to do with her finger) are not too hard and there's hidden objects on every page which she likes to find all by herself.  Now with no computer to distract me, we've been spending time every day reading them.

These are the ones from our shelf:

Puzzle Island

Puzzle Mountain

Puzzle Dungeon

Puzzle Ocean

Puzzle Palace

Puzzle Journey Under the Sea