Who's Hiding?

Who's Hiding' is a delightful rhyming text by Jenny Broom and the Italian illustrator, Agnese Baruzzi. With beautiful, graphically strong imagery, these fold out pages are transformed into magical scenes. Baruzzi's bright, bold illustration style makes for an interactive, joyful read.
Scattered with subtle clues presented in Broom's playful copy, we are invited to guess as to who may be hiding within the fold back pages.
Young and emerging readers will enjoy speculating over who will appear, as they intrepidly open the concertinaed pages.
Each spread is jam packed with glorious colour and simple, clean imagery, in this hide-and-seek game with a twist. Readers will instantly recognise the majority of animals and insects and will be pleasantly surprised by what is actually revealed on each page. The cadence of the rhyme immediately holds the attention of the reader and keeps the story moving at a sprightly pace.

* picturebooksblogger *

Agnese Baruzzi and Jenny Broom
Templar Publishing
Things are not exactly as they seem at first glance in this superbly designed animal book. On each left hand side of the spread is a playful, descriptive verse with an invitation to guess which cleverly concealed animal is lurking beneath the concertina fold of the opposite page. Thus, a seemingly ordinary lily pond opens to confront readers with a large spotty frog sitting yoga style upon a lily pad; this having been introduced by Jenny Broom's interrogative rhyme,
In the pond, one creature swims,
Stretching out its long green limbs.
Who croaks and leaps and hops like mad
And perches on a lily pad?
Most young listeners/readers will be able to guess each hidden animal in turn, others will enjoy surmising, before all is revealed in Agnese Baruzzi's brightly coloured scene once the page is extended. "We could say it's 'hide-and-speak' as well as 'hide-and seek' " commented one of the five year olds I shared this book with.
Each scene comprises a whole host of gorgeously coloured images of the flora and fauna of the particular habitat shown and the final unfolded spread shows a broader view with all six of the animals to spot.
I'd say this is one to inspire young children to be curious not just indoors while reading, but outdoors too. Try showing it to slightly older children from say 6 or 7 too; they may well be inspired to have a go at making their own fold out spreads, and perhaps testing them out with younger children.

-- Jill r bennett * Red Reading Hub *

Hide and seek is awesome, kids never get tired of it. Now you can own your very own book version of hide and seek.
"In the pond, one creature swims,
Stretching out its long green limbs.
Who croaks and leaps and hops like mad,
And perches on a lily pad?"
Opening the folded page reveals the cleverly concealed hidden animal. The illustrations are bright and all-a-pop with interesting shapes and objects. This lovely simple rhyming story is just the ticket for reading aloud to preschoolers.

* My Friend Lucy *

Who's Hiding? Is the lovely illustrated book by Agnese Baruzzi. Children and adults will love guessing what creatures are hiding by simple descriptive clues in the fun rhyming couplets before children can fold out the pages to reveal the creature.

This stunning book starts off in the garden patch, and with clues such as these: 'With cotton tail and furry ears, Which creature's found its dinner here?' I believe children will have no trouble guessing the hidden creature. The illustrations on the folded page are cleverly done so that the page looks as if it's just a garden patch and a very tall carrot sticking out but once you fold out the page, a bunny is revealed munching on a very large carrot.

The book covers the following scenes; woodland, pond, garden, sand and palm trees before ending up on a large landscaped picture which includes all of the creatures and asks for you to spot them.


Every page spread is beautifully illustrated and I love how certain aspects will turn into something else once you fold out the page, for example, how a toadstool becomes a ladybird or the heads of two birds which once made up a palm tree. There is a limited colour palette used, using muted colours which creates a lovely calming feel. And even the shape of the book makes it easier to handle for small hands. Recommended age is from 3-5 year olds.
I love the fun clues and the stunning graphic artwork. Children and adults alike will no doubt enjoy this interactive journey of discovery again and again.

* The Bookworm Ba