Where's Spot?
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Lap Listeners stage.
Why it fits Lap Listeners (for babies in their first year, when books are about your voice, not the plot)
The first lift-the-flap mystery: where is that puppy hiding? Flaps give babies cause and effect at the flick of a wrist. The joy of finding Spot never once wears out.
What makes it special
Hill invented the lift-the-flap plot: a question a baby can physically answer. The flat, cheerful line-and-color art keeps every scene legible to eyes still learning to parse pictures. Its analog interactivity — real flaps, real surprise, real object permanence practice — beats any app's animated peekaboo.
From the publisher
A mother dog finds eight other animals hiding around the house before finding her lost puppy. Flaps conceal the…
About Eric Hill
Eric Hill (1927–2014) was a London-born freelance illustrator who created Spot, the world's most famous lift-the-flap puppy, effectively inventing the interactive storybook for toddlers.
Hill drew a paper flap over a picture one evening to amuse his two-year-old son Christopher, who kept demanding to know what was underneath — Where's Spot? grew directly from that game, and Hill left advertising to follow it.
Also by this author: Spot's First Walk · Spot Goes to School · Spot's Birthday Party
More from “Touch, Pat, Peek”
This book is part of The Best Books for Babies: 30 Teacher Picks (Lap Listeners) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.