Undercover: One of These Things is Almost Like The Others

by Bastien Contraire

A clever and surprising approach to categorization and the art of disguise

Readers will look for the odd one out on each spread of this stylish, 64-page picture book, packed with familiar objects, stunningly depicted in duotone. This play on the analogy of shapes makes the objects look deceitfully similar and the task surprisingly tricky! With a range of humorous visual jokes through association (an egg among birds) as well as clever shape comparisons (a plane among insects), this wordless book offers much to be discussed, and the joy of visual deciphering and categorization is sure to continue beyond its pages.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2016

Reviews

[jess ~has abandoned GR~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have used this book in storytimes several times for kids under 5 and every child has loved it. Some of the pages are a bit puzzling to work out, but I've never had a crowd of kids not figure out a page. Highly recommended for little kids.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss 3 and I like to explore different books at the library and try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

Undercover: One of These Things is Almost Like The Others
by Meagan Bennett

There is a single cohesive colour scheme that runs through the book so the 'find the odd one out' requires little ones to recognise what they are looking at based on the shape rather than the colour. Miss 3 loves the book. There are plenty of things to look at and she memorised the odd ones out after the first or second read through :) not that it detracted from her enjoyment of the book!

[Rhonda K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book to "read" with kids. It is driven by illustrations and has no words. The reader looks at the two page spread to determine which image doesn't fall within the same category as the 11 other pictures. The images are really cleverly depicted. This could be a great warm up to other learning exercises in the classroom, probably pre-k through 2.

[Emmett Griffo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever book with beautiful artwork. No words.

My three year old loves going through the images and naming everything he already knows while learning the names of things he doesn't know.

Helps children develop perception and attention to details. I also ask my son to describe what the images all have in common (recognizing theme).

[Phaea Crede · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is ridiculously beautiful, devastatingly clever, and extremely fun to read. Many of the "different" objects on the pages made me (and my kid) laugh out loud, like the desk lamp among the flowers. Super cool

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic collection of images for spot the difference. Great for those learning to categorize items and talk about same and difference.

[JuD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro ilustrado realmente genial. No solo para niños, sino incluso para adultos y que puede dar mucho de si.

[Alyssa Gudenburr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book for young children. No words and the child has to pick out which one is almost like the others. Undercover gets kids thinking.

[Allie]

This would be a fun seek-and-find lap read. The illustrations are really beautiful and super classic.

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

wordless matching books. Might make a good CLEL Bell talk book.

Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2017

[Ethan & Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

They can't fool me on every page...

[Samir Kagadkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s amazing to watch your child’s neurons fire up the first time he reads this book!
The artwork is beautiful too. It feels like art from a bygone era.

[LittleE · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter just loved "spotting" things in this whimsical book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat simplistic look and find type book with pink, green, and brown illustrations. Some are easy to spot and others make you look a little closer. My kids are big into being detectives lately so it was a good fit.

[Turrean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating volume that examines perception.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great first "pick what doesn't belong here" picture book for a small child - art is 'retrorific' and the design of the book is clever.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cool book. Very clever and entertaining. I was actually laughing at several pages.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, pink and green colors overlap with brown/purple
no words
identify what doesn't belong

[Ad Astra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A no words book that is absolutely wonderful for curious and visually keen. I could look at this and read it several times over because it's just fun to look at.

[Joan Arbogast · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though the art is attractive & inviting, some pages may prove to be a real challenge for young ones to determine which images are suppose to be similar. Great idea though.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice. Perfect for a read-alone. No words, just looking and picking out what is different. One can even add more thought to it by seeing who it is almost like the other things. This would work in either storytime, though if I do toddler I will paper clip a few pages so I don't go through all of them. A few of those items might be beyond their knowledge.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find the item that doesn't fit in on each page.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artistically beautiful, but some of the spreads are pretty tricky for little ones! :-)