Country United Kingdom Subject Where's Wally? Media type Print (Hardback) Illustrator Martin Handford | Language English Publication date September 18, 1987 Originally published 18 September 1987 Genre Children's literature Page count 26 | |
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Publisher UK: Walker Books; US: first Little Brown, then Candlewick Press Characters Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, Woof, Wilma, Wally, Wenda Similar Martin Handford books, Where's Wally? books, Children's literature | ||
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. 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).
Contents
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
- In Town
- On the Beach
- Ski Slopes
- Camp Site
- The Railway Station
- Airport
- Sports Stadium
- Museum
- At Sea
- Safari Park
- Department Store
- Fairground
Challenging Where's Wally?
The book has been challenged in libraries and schools because of a topless woman near the upper right of the "On the Beach" scene. It ranks #87 on the American Library Association's "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books" list (1990-1999) because of the exposed breast. The woman is wearing a bikini top in the 1997 special edition release.
A similar happening occurs in "The Campsite" where children open a tent on a man while he is undressing. In the original, although his genitals are blocked from view by his hand, he is clearly naked. In the 1997 special release, however, he is wearing white briefs.