Title: Where’s Wally? The Totally Essential Travel Collection
Author: Martin Handford
Illustrator: Martin Handford
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s activity, Puzzle
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Just what you’ve been waiting for…All the wondrous Wally worlds in one! Seven sensational classic Where’s Wally? books packed into a handy travel-sized edition. Wherever you’re going, however you’re travelling – join the spectacular search for Wally and be sure to send a postcard to all of your friends!
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: I really love Where’s Wally? Although I never had all the books in my collection, I grew up with them and loved searching for all the hidden extras you could find. Now, to celebrate 30 years of Where’s Wally, seven great books have been packed into this handy travel sized set which is perfect for those who either didn’t have all the books already or just want to keep them all in one place! The book is about A5 in size with semi-hardback covers and a material elastic band that can close the entire book so nothing spills out if you do take this book on your travels.
Inside the front and back covers (slotted into a gap in the covers) there are some postcards you can to colour in, six in total, which feature a section of random Where’s Wally scenes. The postcards are great and nicely detailed so will take some time (but not too much time) to colour in. The postcards are also thick which means pens will work as well as pencils for colouring in, but what’s even more fun is that they also feature a short checklist of a few things to find on the front of the post card itself, which can be fun for both the person colouring in the postcard to find and the person receiving it!
The seven books inside this travel collection are: Where’s Wally?, Where’s Wally Now?, Where’s Wally? The Fantastic Journey, Where’s Wally? In Hollywood, Where’s Wally? The Wonder Book, The Great Picture Hunt and Where’s Wally? The Incredible Paper Chase.
All seven books are in this travel collection complete and I’m amazed at how they all fit in together but it’s cleverly done. Each book has an extra folded page at the start which unfolds to show a checklist of things to find in each scene. This is only half the checklist you usually find in a Where’s Wally book so the other half of the checklist is folded on the last page of the book. I’ve shown photos of how this is done. The folded pages are easy to spot in the book and basically mark where each book begins so it’s easy to find.
Each page of a Where’s Wally book is of course smaller than the original books but are nice glossy and quite thick pages with clear and colourful images. I have good near vision so I didn’t have any trouble spotting even the smallest of objects however I will warn you that if you don’t want to strain your eyes it might be harder for some to spot the little things such as Woof’s bone, a key, etc. The checklist text may also be a little too small for some people to read.
I love this travel collection as I never had every Where’s Wally book in my collection. There are so many amazing pages to look at and I just love the way that just one Where’s Wally page can keep you looking for hours as there’s so many funny things happening in ever corner of each page!
I’d definitely recommend this to any Where’s Wally fan, but also to those who have never tried the books before. The full original price of ten UK pounds for seven books is amazing considering how much each book costs individually and the added bonus of the six postcards plus having all the books in one place makes this a great buy for everyone.
-Review forst appeared online September 2017 – now republished here.
What do you think of this book collection? Do you or your children enjoy Where’s Wally? books? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 