Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer

Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer
Buy Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Lorraine McDonald
Summary: A quirky toddler book that makes up for its lack of words with a plentiful supply of snails! Look hard to spot them embedded in other illustrations. Is that a mollusc masquerading as a tuba, forming a parrot’s head, an owl’s eye’s, a curled up elephant trunk and the twisted end of a mountain goat’s horn? Look closely to see…
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: March 2015
Publisher: Phaidon Press
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0714867991
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Snail, Where Are You? is a picture book that fits in a special category that I label 'curiosity'. In a nutshell, this is a picture book with no words, until the final page, and no story. It consists of a series of illustrations in which a snail is hiding, not Where’s Wally? style in a complex scene, but as part of the lines making up a drawing.

The first thing that struck me about this book was its resemblance to a psychological measure, the Embedded Figures Test. This test assesses field dependence – the ability not to be distracted by irrelevant background when looking to locate a target. I’m not sure if the similarity is coincidental however, I note that this book was first published in the sixties, around the same time as the Embedded Figures Test. Enough of the psych 101… I’m sure the author-illustrator intended to create wit and fun, rather than a toddler diagnostic. That said, I was intrigued to see what my little 'un made of this. The publisher recommends this book for 2-4 year olds. He falls at the lower of this age range and can't yet dictate his opinions to me in a publishable form. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't grasp this concept. Turns out he did. When asked 'Snail, Where Are You?' he cheerily pointed at the mollusc masquerading as a tuba, forming a parrot’s head, an owl’s eyes, a curled up elephant trunk and the twisted end of a mountain goat’s horn. That’s my (field independent) boy.

The illustrations in this book are a mixed bunch. They are contrived, of course, to incorporate the necessary swirls of a snail shell. Some look like very rough sketches hastily coloured in with magic markers. One or two, such as the elephant and the mountain goat, were more pleasing to me at least. Toddler boy was drawn in right from the inner leaf. Wow! The colour lit up his face. That is a statement of fact and not an exaggeration. Someone who knows about such things tells me that this intense colour is a special print with the vibrancy owing to the use of a single pigment. That’s the technical explanation but suffice to say this is a handsome and distinctive tome with colour exploding from every page.

Snail, Where Are You? is quite unlike any other toddler book I have seen. It’s interactive, engaging and a bit of quirky fun. If you or your toddler like interactive books that are beautifully printed then you could try One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses for some imaginative fun.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer at Amazon.com.

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