Cute board book, sweetly illustrated. This book highlights famous places, people, and history of each of the 50 states. It would be great for a preschool to kindergarten classroom.

I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received through Netgalley. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an interesting premise. It had 2 pages of tidbits for each of the states. It contains lots of interesting information, but I'm not sure how much young kids will enjoy it.

I thought that this was a fun book.
It was a mixture of both learning and fun activities to get children involved.
A great way for them to learn and I love the idea of finding the objects too.
It is 4 stars from me for this one

Bright and colorful look at the 50 States in the U.S. There is a hole to peek through on each page to spy the next State. The simple graphics are beautiful but provide limited information and I think a few words explaining the images would be helpful. Might be a good book for a cross country road trip with kids.

Thank you NetGalley & Quarto Publishing Group - Wide Eyed Editions for an advanced copy of this book.

I Spy the 50 States is a picture book aimed at preschoolers and kindergarteners which introduces each of the 50 US states through a collection of stylized images. These images cover a wide range of items, places, and people that make up the different states from apple pies and baseballs, to famous statues, mountains, and cities. As you travel across the US from state to state, you’ll follow a bald eagle and try to spot three items in each state that begin with the same letter*.

I Spy the 50 States does a good job at introducing all the states and showing both what makes them unique and what they share in common. Each state gets an equal amount of space, so none feel more important than any others. California’s spread shows the Hollywood sign, Alcatraz, gold, and the Santa Monia Pier, while New York shows pizza and bagels, Broadway and the Statue of Liberty. Yes, there’s a lot of stereotyping going on here, but in a primer aimed at very young children that’s generally forgivable.

One thing I disliked was the way the color scheme remained the same throughout the book. It seemed to me that states like Nevada and Arizona have a very different color palette to Washington and Oregon, yet the book’s use of a single palette throughout made all the states feel oddly homogenous.

Many of the images were also so overly stylized that it was hard to tell what they were supposed to be, something that was not helped by the lack of labeling. In North Dakota, a building is shown that I guess must be significant in some way, but as I am not familiar with the area, I was left clueless about what it might be. Meanwhile, in California, a tall tree is shown that I can only assume is supposed to be a giant redwood – I have only visited California once but even I can tell you that giant redwoods look nothing like that.

I Spy the 50 States is a fun book for parents to share with very young children, but it may frustrate those with slightly older kids beginning to ask questions.

*In my advance copy, several items listed to search for were missing from the images – a problem repeatedly noted across several other published reviews. I have been assured by the publisher that this problem has been corrected prior to printing.

Great way to travel the United Stated. Good illistrations. Interesting facts of each state. Fun to read and learn with kids. Would recommend.

I Spy the 50 States is a children’s picture book with a small I Spy element (three items are listed, all starting with the same letter). Each state is represented in colorful pictures, over a two-page spread. In the top left-hand corner of every state spread is an illustration that says the state name and its nickname (i.e. California, The Golden State). Within the spread are pictures that represent something unique about the state, such as a famous landmark, the state capitol, native plants or wildlife, etc.

My interest is in this book comes from my love for travel. Wanderlust has taken me many different places over the years, and I hope to pass on the love for exploration onto my children. And what better way to get them excited about new places than through colorful pictures, right?
Well, I have to be honest, this book fell short for me.

The illustrations were colorful and wonderfully drawn. The pictures of people were diverse. Throughout the book, famous stops along the underground railroad are included, as well as native American landmarks, and various museums where people can explore our history, good and bad. And I love that. However, there was at least one depiction of what appeared to be a slave woman happily holding her harvest. I say “appeared” because this is my interpretation of the picture, but I doubt that I’m the only person who would see it as such, and I find it bothersome. So, maybe I’m the PC police, but I think the image should have been left out since there is no verbiage to define what is intended.

Obviously, this is a children’s book, but it is clearly geared for younger children. Certainly it is way too young for my kiddos, though they might enjoy the pictures. However, I do think children on the older end of the intended age range would have questions (curious little minds!) about what that bird is, etc. and as the images are specific to each state, I doubt most parents would have answers to all those questions.

Finally, the publisher’s summary claims that the images are meant to represent unique features of each state, but if every state has similar pictures, it’s hardly unique is it? And why is the Statue of Liberty on New Jersey’s page? Ellis Island is shared jurisdiction between New York and New Jersey, Liberty Island is not. As this is a nonfiction children’s book, I think it’s important that the facts be accurate.

In a nutshell, I know it’s a children’s book and it probably appears I’m being an overly picky curmudgeon. The pictures are bright and colorful, I greatly appreciate the inclusivity, but I think the topic requires more than pictures, and this would have been better done as a series with a book per state and geared towards slightly older children.

I like the idea, but feel the execution falls short. It’s a pass for me.

I have to say, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I usually do with books published by Quarto. I quite like the typography for the State names; I think most of them are all pretty readable and being framed nicely on the upper left corner, however, the rest... They are just too much! All pretty saturated. Really wished a white gutter could have been used. The layout is nice, but it feels really suffocating with all of the illustrations sticking with each other. In most cases, I think it did the individual illustrations a disservice by connecting them with neighboring pieces. It's a fun book, but like I said, not my usual favorite.

This book is hard to appreciate as an ebook. I had to use my imagination about how it would be to hold the book in my hands while reading it to a little one. I liked that it was written as an I Spy game. It seems that it would be a fun reading and learning experience for children. The illustrated states looked very appealing and I know they would look even more beautiful in full color.

Creative idea and great perhaps for a book while traveling. It is a great way to learn some things and keep us busy too -- a fun family time activity. Creative illustrations too, which aer interesting.

A bald eagle guides the reader over all 50 states and DC. Each page features people, places, and things endemic to the state, as well as three things starting with the same letter, just like the game referenced in the title. Thankfully a lot of them are captioned.
Can’t help but wonder why New Hampshire got a ladybug, and no other state did, but then I suppose it’s easy to run out of ideas with the tiny states.
The eagle appears in every state. Football and baseball players appear in many, provided there’s a team there. Tennessee gets a porcupine.
Some are obvious, a few are funny, but without context it’s hard to see what the author’s getting at with the more obscure drawings.

I loved this book! In fact, I have loved this series! I bought them for my 8th grade U.S. History class (they are all English Language Learners) and they loved the illustrations.

This is a cute picture book about the 50 states. The colors are bold. The only drawback is if you don't know the buildings or images that are drawn it is hard to tell kids about them. I like that there is a little finding game for kids with each state.

"I Spy the 50 States" book is a handy and nice companion book to the "The 50 States" (ISBN 9781847809346) that was published in 2015. While the "The 50 States" is aimed for mature young readers, the "I Spy the 50 States" is a better choice for little kiddos. There are three "I Spy" challenges for each state- easy, fun and engaging.

The uniqueness about the book is all the illustrations are not random landmarks/food/plants/animals/culture but all pertain and are relevant to each states. Besides looking up the "I spy" items, readers can also learn a thing or two about other states while browsing through the pictures. Some illustrations are easy to recognize, some are not. Few are labeled but mostly aren't. I can imagine parents could have a challenging time to explain some illustrations when they get to the states they are not familiar with. For me, since I own the "The 50 States" myself, I find myself constantly going back to it to spot the unfamiliar objects I see in the "I Spy the 50 States."

The book has a lot of potential and I could see it makes a perfect book for family to spend quality time together. It would also make a perfect fun intro book for readers who desire to learn more about the country. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed the "I Spy" concept of the book, however I was hoping for more information on the states. The illustrations are colorful but do not provide the readers with significant information about the states. I would've liked to see more text to accompany the illustrations.

I would use this text in a classroom library with young children for the "I Spy" concept but would not use during instruction on the 50 states.

'I Spy the 50 States' by Sharyn Rosart with art by Sol Linero is a fun picture book with lots of iconography representing all the states.

Starting from the East and moving West, each state gets a page full of colorful pictures representing what you might find in that state. From maple syrup to dinosaur skeletons to surfers and famous buildings and monuments. Each page has a series of things to look for that are easy enough to find. Along with the things that make states different, there are also the things they have in common.

I liked the bright simple pictures that crowd each page. They made if fun to hunt for things. I also liked looking up the places I'd been to see what was included and what got overlooked. That's the problem with only including a handful of images. Something is bound to get overlooked, but for the armchair traveler, or even one on a long road trip, this would be a fun read.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Wide Eyed Editions, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I find refreshing reading children's books and romance novels in between thrillers. It is also a relaxing experience as the themes and elements in children's literature take me back to those carefree and simpler childhood times.

This title explores each of the U.S. States, on each page there's a large picture that contains various objects, flora, fauna, and places related to that State. Below there are three words you can "spy" on the image which seems like a fun activity to play with a child. Some of the places were recognizable but others were not and there was no explanation of how they were related to that State.

Overall, I enjoyed it but would've liked to have seen a footnote below the images with the description of it, it would have made more interesting my reading experience.

Received ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

This was alright, but I think I have seen better primers for the young where geography is concerned. You get a double page spread for each and every US state, with a wodge of jumbled images entirely lacking in context, beyond the fact they are relevant to each state and often labelled. With each you can pore over the twenty-odd things, and find three per spread that all have the same initial letter, but quite a few of these turn up in the labels anyway, so that many times it's no great task. And sometimes the artwork is really on the questionable side – ever-colourful, yes, but when I turned to my favourite state, Alaska, I had to guess that that was a nugget of gold, but I still am not sure what's in the bottom middle of the spread. Is it some raccoon eyes? Some road markings from above? I have to assume it's the slit of snow goggles, but I would have needed adult company to tell me. (And I don't remember Alaska for its dragonflies – perhaps the Northern Lights could have been there instead?)

I guess the artist has had to work hard on the unique quirk of the book, whereby a fraction of one image actually bursts through from the image below, when a hole in the spread you're on shares a coin-sized identical detail from the next state along your trip. That works surprisingly well as a design trick to draw the eye, less so perhaps to draw the mental image of the states' connections as intended. In the end I found this a peculiar approach to showing what can represent the states (images of the capitol building for each one, with no mention of which city it's in, for one), but if you wish to instil some superlatives into your young through these stylised artworks, then you might find favour with it. Two and a half stars from me.

'I Spy The 50 States' is such a charming book, and although it is marketed as a children's book, I reckon adults will learn new things here too, especially those who live outside of the United States. It introduces kids to each of the fifty states in turn through a wonderfully colourful board book with holes to peek through as you progress. Each state gets its own two-page spread and features images of the people, landmarks and things that make each state unique.

As it is so basic I would recommend this for very young children as those that are older may wish to read more in-depth information about America. Each page has an "I spy" challenge, with three things starting with the same letter. I feel this would an ideal book for keeping a child occupied during a car journey/road trip. It certainly has enough going on to hold their interest for a decent period of time.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Wide Eyed Editions for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This is a cute little book. It would be fun for a toddler or preschooler. I was thinking it might be a more difficult book to hold the attention of my older kids, but they wouldn't be interested in this. I really hope that the author decides to do a more advanced version of I Spy the 50 States for older kids as well!