Pierre The Maze Detective: The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone by Hiro Kamigaki & IC4DESIGN is probably one of the most fun books I have seen in years.  Growing up Where’s Waldo was one of those books that was sought out on library day at school.  I remember searching for that red and white striped cap and getting lost in all the little details.

Fast forward almost 30 years…

Pierre the Maze Detective is so much more fun and engaging than Waldo (sorry, Waldo, you were cool thirty years ago, but now your story is just a little, well…flat).  Basically this book is a game, and there are four things you need to do.

1. Find the START sign and follow the maze to the goal, but beware there are pesky things blocking your way, so you need to be creative in your maneuvering.
2. Extra challenges, Pierre’s friends will ask you to find lots things (perhaps a green dinosaur, or a kings throne).
3. Find Hidden Objects: stars, trophies, treasure chests within each maze
4. Find the shortest route that isn’t blocked to the goal sign

The premise is that you need to help Pierre, he is a maze detective and he has been just waiting around for another job.  All of a sudden Pierre’s adorable friend Carmen (who wears a perfect pink pea coat), arrives to tell him that a huge crime has occurred, she has the newspaper clipping and a letter from the culprit, Mr. X who has stolen the Maze Stone and turned all of Opera City into a maze!  Of course Pierre is up for this challenge as any Maze Detective of good merit would be.

So if you choose to help Pierre solve this crime you will enter into the world of Opera City and the 15 mazes that Pierre will need to solve to uncover the clues to find Mr. X.  You will travel through a cafe, hot air balloon festival, castle, forest, a busy port, haunted mansion, and of course an ocean maze complete with a craken!

This book was so much fun, every night my husband and Zoe and I would lay in her bed scouring the mazes to locate all of the hidden items (sometimes as many as twenty), and giggle at all of the silly things happening in the pictures.  We would race to see who could find the items first.  It was an absolute joy to scan the pages together with excitement for how to solve the maze and locate the hidden items that Pierre’s friends has specially requested we locate.  When it got close to the end of the book we found ourselves feeling equally excited because the mazes had been so much fun, but also sad because a special part of our nighttime routine was soon to end.

A little bit about the art…it’s AMAZING!  Seriously, wait until you can spend a few minutes looking at all of the fine details that come together to make this book so perfect.  I found myself getting really excited every night to spend time with my family, but also to see what else was in store in these stunning illustrations.  I guarantee your kids will love this book.

Perfect for kids 6 -11 year olds, I think it would be perfect for traveling with children as it takes a lot of focus to find all of the items and through the maze, with that said the book is oversized, so if you have space constraints check into that.  I could see this book being good for kids who need to build their stamina for focusing; it was great to watch Zoe slow down and look for detail and learn to scan and ignore everything else she was looking for.  Also, this book smells amazing!  Added bonus of course.

I can’t wait to hear what you think, seriously, I love nothing more than chatting about books!

Erin