Where's Wally? (book)

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Where's Wally?
WheresWally.jpg
First edition
Author Martin Handford
Illustrator Martin Handford
LanguageEnglish
Subject Where's Wally?
PublisherUK: Walker Books; US: first Little Brown, then Candlewick Press
Publication date
18 September 1987
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages26
ISBN 0-316-34293-9
OCLC 15109312
LC Class PZ7.H1918 Wh 1987

Where's Wally?, published in the United States and Canada as Where's Waldo?, is the title of the first book in the Where's Wally? series, published in 1987. [1]

Contents

In the book, Wally travels to everyday places, where he sends postcards to the reader (which are the pictures in the book), and the reader must locate Wally in the postcard.

The book became an instant best-seller.

Where's Wally? was re-released in October 1997 in a special 10th anniversary edition form.

The location of Wally was changed in each picture and additional characters were added for the reader to find (Woof, Wizard Whitebeard, Wenda, Odlaw, the Wally Watchers, and others).

The Wally series is quite evocative of an earlier children's book titled Where's Wallace? (by Hilary Knight), in which a red-headed orangutan escapes from the zoo and "hides" in highly detailed picture panoramas, including beach, department store, circus, stadium, and museum.

Scenes

  1. In Town
  2. On the Beach
  3. Ski Slopes
  4. Camp Site
  5. The Railway Station
  6. Airport
  7. Sports Stadium
  8. Museum
  9. At Sea
  10. Safari Park
  11. Department Store
  12. Fairground

Controversy

In March 1993, Springs Public School in Long Island, New York banned Where's Wally from the school library due to a parent's complaint that a topless woman can be seen sunbathing in the upper right corner of the "On the Beach" scene. [2] Since then numerous other schools and libraries have also banned the book, [3] and it ranks #87 on the American Library Association's list of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. [4] In the 1997 special edition re-release of the book, the beach scene was slightly edited and the topless woman is wearing a bikini top. [5] [6]

References

  1. Valdez, Nick (2021-07-12). "One Piece to Launch Crossover With Where's Waldo". Comic Book. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  2. "School bans 'Waldo' book after complaint of nudity". Toledo Blade . 1993-03-29. p. 10 via news.google.com.
  3. Rossen, Jake (2016-03-10). "Waldo's Topless Beach Scandal". Mental Floss . Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  4. "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". Banned & Challenged Books. American Library Association. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  5. JenA (2017-09-13). "Banned Book Week: Where's Waldo?". East Lansing Public Library. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  6. Quindlen, Anna (1993-04-07). "Public & Private; The Breast Ban". New York Times . p. A-23.