My children and I love search-and-find puzzle books. We enjoy sitting together and exploring the illustrations for hidden objects. I Spy With My Little Eye Baseball is a unique visual puzzle book. Instead of searching for hidden objects, the reader searches for differences between two photographs.

David Milne has created 14 challenging visual puzzles from his own engaging baseball photographs and collages. The rhyming text by David Milne includes clues about how many differences there are and even a few specific changes to look for. Photo Facts are sprinkled throughout the book, with information about the history of baseball and its players. The photographic puzzles help train the reader to focus on details and develop thinking skills. The book has a nice mix of puzzle difficulty, with a range of 15 to 41 changes to discover in the photographs.

This is an addictive book. Anyone who sets out to solve a puzzle is drawn into the book, and can easily lose half an hour (or more) searching and counting. My 10-year-old son was especially drawn to the sports theme, but we all found the puzzles to be an irresistible challenge. Even as I write this review, I have to keep dragging myself back from my own puzzle-solving to actually write.

I can’t find anything objectionable in this book, and I believe that any family with children who love sports or visual puzzles would enjoy I Spy With My Little Eye Baseball. It is a quality hardbound book with colorful photographs. I think this would make an excellent book for long car rides, if your child doesn’t struggle with car sickness. Staring at the photographs for too long gives me a headache, and I can only imagine it might be magnified if I were riding in a car.

The book declares that it is “fun for all ages,” and I definitely agree! However, children between 2 nd and 7 th grade might enjoy the photographic puzzles the most. It’s a great gift idea and should provide hours of problem-solving fun!