Up, Up and Away by Scot Ritchie

Review by Chris Singer

About the author:

Scot Ritchie is an award-winning illustrator of more than 30 books for children including Why? by Catherine Ripley and Let’s Go! by Lizann Flatt. He loves to travel and his work has taken him to London, Berlin, and Hawaii. He lives in Vancouver.

About the book:

Six lucky children have won first prize in a geography competition: an amazing trip around the world by hot-air balloon. Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, a huge shopping mall in the United States, a bustling Beijing market, a Bollywood film set — each stop is an adventure. The reader’s challenge is to find all six children at each of the 12 destinations. Young readers get a captivating snapshot of many different parts of the world as they use their detective skills to round up the travelers for the next leg of their journey. Scot Ritchie’s wonderfully detailed illustrations make each vibrantly colored spread a treat to delve into over and over again.

My take on the book:

Up, Up and Away reminded me of the Where’s Waldo? books except here you’re tasked with looking for seven characters (6 students and 1 of their teachers) instead of one. There are 12 puzzles (destinations) in all: Bolivia, United States, Canada, England, Denmark, Italy, France, Egypt, China, Thailand, India and Australia. The puzzles are definitely challenging enough for kids ages 6  up to 11.

This is a fun book and would please any young reader interested in world geography and travel. The back of the book has additional information about the pictures depicting real travel destinations. For example, readers will learn about the Incas, who believed they came from Lake Titikaka, or “Womb of Mankind” as they called it. They’ll also learn how the king of Denmark gave permission to Georg Carstensen to build an amusement park in the center of Copenhagen and is the oldest operating parks of its kind in the world.

The back of the book also has solutions to each of the puzzles. You’re definitely going to need to check your answers because the children are really well hidden and there’s lots of phony look-alikes.

My daughter enjoyed looking at the pictures but she was a bit young to really be able to find the solutions. All the same, if you have elementary-age children, this is a great book to take on a trip with you or to take to the doctor’s office.