Your search and find book, with your loved ones in your own places.

Usually a large picture book that shows a place full of tiny scenes on every double page, often with no text at all. Children discover for themselves, point, name things and tell what is going on. In English, books like this are often sold as search and find books.

Ali Mitgutsch is regarded as the inventor. His book “Rundherum in meiner Stadt” appeared in 1968 and won the Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis, the German youth book prize, in 1969. Rotraut Susanne Berner's wimmelbooks for the seasons are well known, too.

A classic wimmelbook sets no tasks: you look and tell stories freely. A search and find book such as “Where's Waldo?” sets a goal. A personalized search and find book combines the two: free discovery, and on every page somebody familiar to look for.

It is well established that looking at pictures together and talking about them builds vocabulary. There is no study of wimmelbooks in particular. Because the pictures have hardly any text, preschools like to use them for storytelling, in several languages too.

From about one year for pointing and naming, from two or three for searching and finding, and up to elementary-school age for puzzling and storytelling. There is no fixed limit. Children get the most out of it when someone looks along and talks with them about it.

Up to 6 characters: children, adults, pets and made-up characters too. On every double page up to four of them hide, and each in a different spot from the page before.

No. A short description is enough: hair, clothes, what makes the character special. With a photo, they look more like the real person. Bold clothing colors make searching easier, because the character wears the same thing on every page.

Yes. Describe the place, such as “the town square in our neighborhood with the fountain”, and add a photo if you like. We paint a busy picture that follows the place. It won't be an exact map, but it will be full of life.

Your drawn characters, the cover with its title and the first double page, both in full print resolution for zooming in. The other 13 double pages we paint after you buy, which takes about 20 minutes.

Exactly the same as our picture book: the eBook $5.90, the hardcover $37.90 plus $6.90 shipping. The eBook is included with the hardcover.

A hardcover with 32 pages, 8.5 × 11 inches, so about 17 inches wide when open. The first page shows all the characters hiding in the book, then come the 14 double pages.

The hidden characters are never in the middle of the picture, where the book is bound. The picture runs across both pages, and the hardcover opens wide.

Yes. Before you buy, you can have the cover and the first double page repainted three times each, with notes such as “more children” or “Grandpa on the bench” if you like. After you buy, the book has an account of 20 new pictures with the eBook and 30 with the hardcover.