 | |
| Author | Jean Marzollo |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Walter Wick |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
I Spy is a children's book series with text written by Jean Marzollo, and photographs by Walter Wick, which was published by Scholastic Press. Each page contains a photo with objects in it, and the riddles (written in dactylic tetrameter rhyme[1]) accompanying the photo state which objects have to be found.
Although the first I Spy book contains unrelated pages of still life pictures, subsequent books are more thematic.[2]
Several video games based on the I Spy books are available for Windows PC, Nintendo DS, Wii, iOS, Leapster, and Game Boy Advance, including I Spy Spooky Mansion, I Spy Treasure Hunt, and I Spy Fantasy. These served as early examples of an increasingly popular hidden object game genre.
I Spy merchandise has been sold in at least 31 countries worldwide.[3]
Wick stated in a 1997 news article, "My career can really be put into two categories: before I Spy and after I Spy. ... The success of the books has been really nice. I never got that lucky break in my commercial career, but all of that hard work ... was usable for I Spy."[2]
Authors
Jean Marzollo was the award-winning author of over 100 books, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, Help Me Learn Addition, Help Me Learn Subtraction, Pierre the Penguin, Soccer Sam, Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, The Little Plant Doctor, In 1776, Mama Mama/Papa Papa, and I Am Water, as well as books for parents and teachers such as The New Kindergarten.
Walter Wick is the author and photographer of the best-selling series Can You See What I See?.
Carol Carson Devine, the book designer for the first I Spy books, is art director at Alfred A. Knopf Publishers. She has designed covers for books by John Updike, Joan Didion, Alice Munro, Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II.
See also
- I Spy Spooky Mansion (1999)
- Ultimate I Spy (2008)