Pirates & Privateers: Walter Wick's Books

A few years ago my nieces, Harmony and Sarah, introduced me to a Can You See What I See? book. Now this picture puzzle series includes one for pirate fans.

When you open the cover of Treasure Ship, you see a color map showing trade routes, pirate routes, and wreck sites. Perhaps one of these denotes the location of Bountiful, a vessel laden with gold coins, stunning gemstones, beautiful jewelry, and creatures of the deep.

For those not familiar with this series, the book is a collection of photographic puzzles that “zoom.” The first puzzle is an extreme close-up, which in Treasure Ship is a coin depicting the Bountiful. Hidden within and around this coin are various objects: a whale’s tail, three birds, a broken heart, long flowing hair, a lightning bolt, an anchor, three keys, a sun, a moon, seven palm trees, a sea shell, a snake, a spyglass, and a golden cup. Readers study the photograph and locate each item described to the right of each picture in the “Can you see what I see?” poem. Once all the items in the first picture have been located, readers turn the page to a new puzzle. The progression of puzzles zooms out each time, providing a series of pictures that reveal more and more of the whole scene.

Whether young or old, readers will spend hours peering at the pages of this book and uncovering the hiding places of the various objects. Eyes will widen and smiles will form as each puzzle reveals a greater picture of the whole, which is never what you expect it to be. Once you solve the mysteries from front cover to back, you can resolve them going from last page to first. Great fun for the whole family!