Penelope Strudel

I loved this book! It’s so cute! Great story, cute illustrations! I can’t wait to read this to my niece!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

Search and Find books are always a good time. Just enough things to find plus mini games. My 4 year old liked finding the things and though it was a bit old for him reading wise, it just made it something we could do together. 10/5 stars from him.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

This is such a fun book for kids. I love student activity books and this has such a fun twist to complete the average activities (search and find, word puzzle, etc). It puts a creative, engaging spin and has beautiful illustrations. I love this and think my students (and many children) will be entertained by it!

Oh my gosh, this activity book for kids is so freaking cute! The artwork is simply adorable and the puzzles, mazes and word searches were great! A super fun interactive book for kids!

Penelope Strudel And the Birthday Treasure Trailby Brendan Kearney is a wonderful, unique treasure hunt picture book. Penelope Strudel is on a quest to find her birthday present from her Uncle in his manor. Each page has a different clue to track down the gift. I loved the creative and silly illustrations and kids will love figuring out each clue! The back of the book includes the answers to each page. This would make a fantastic birthday present for a child who is in early elementary school.

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group/Frances Lincoln Children's Books + NetGalley for the e-advance review copy of PENELOPE STRUDEL AND THE BIRTHDAY TREASURE TAIL by Brendan Kearney. Expected pub date June 1, 2021.

What a fun, entertaining, and engaging book! Penelope's Uncle Derek has hidden her birthday surprise in Custard Manor and you have to help her find it by solving puzzles, figuring out clues, and be quicker than the puffins if you want Penelope to get her birthday surprise.
It'll be a toss-up to see if kids or their grownups enjoy this book with all of its riddles and puzzles more.

Highly, highly recommend.

Fantastic Fun for children of ALL ages! Follow the clues, find all the hidden objects (some are hidden in plain sight), and have a fun time! The colors are so vivid and the illustrations make you feel good just snooping through them. Think that I have to send one to Cleveland and another to Indianapolis (and maybe one for my house, too).
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Quarto Publishing Group/Frances Lincoln Children's Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is an absolutely adorable children's book. The pictures are wonderful and the text of the book would hold your child's interest. There is so much to look at in each picture that you could read this book to a child over and over again and you would find something new each time.

Review to come in 9 days on my blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

In this book we meet Penelope. It is her birthday and she is visiting her uncle's BIG manor! He has got a fun quest for her. IF she dares. If she can solve the puzzles... oh and dodge the pooping puffins that wander around these halls! I was definitely excited to get to finding all sorts of things and solve codes/puzzles. I want this for my birthday. A big manor! Treasure! Well, you can keep those puffins though, haha. I don't want those.

To get to each room we have to solve puzzles! The first one is given by our uncle in a letter/file, the next by a seal, and so on. I really loved that we didn't just go from room to room, no instead we had to puzzle to find out what room was next! The puzzles are quite easy but all the fun! I also liked reading the letters by the uncle, he seems like a wonderful guy!

And in each room? CHAOS (darn you puffins), but also tons of fun! We have to find puffins, the pets, presents and other birthday items, household items, and much more. There are also things that come back with each page, so be on a lookout for those! Each picture was just a feast to behold as so much is going on that you won't be bored for one minute. This one was such a delight, because I have had books like this (search/find books) that rehashed the same images throughout for what you had to find. This one DOESN'T and that makes it both more fun and harder. I love it and I was just giggling in delight. It was fun to search for all the items, tick each one off the in the checklist. See what Penelope is doing as well (in the kitchen is having a lovely drink amidst all the chaos or riding a dinosaur).

There are some rooms that may not be part of your standard Manor. Or even out of the ordinary. I definitely want a custard factory in my house! YUM!

Also, I am a big big hamster lover and so I was delighted to see so many hamsters around! Big bonus points!

The ending was just so sweet! Happy Birthday Penelope and I hope you have an amazing party!!!

The art? OMG OMG OMG I loved it! I need more of it as the style is just wonderful and cute!

This book was just WOW, I loved it so much and I need it on my shelves, so as soon as it comes out and I got a chance? I will be buying it! I need to have this book because there are still so many secrets left! Highly recommended to all lovers of search/find books, birthdays, animals, and oh yes, puzzles!

What an imaginative book! Kids will love looking for clues and solving the puzzle. The pages of looking for items in different rooms, finding the correct numbers to open the lock, and all the other clever pages will go a long way to keep a child’s mind active especially over the summer (and avoid the dreaded summer slump). I hope the author plans on writing more inventive books like this one.
I received an advanced reader copy for free from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Penelope Strudel and the Birthday Treasure Trail is a cute activity book for elementary age students to find things, solve puzzles, and follow clues to discover Penelope’s birthday surprise. This would be a great book for a rainy day or when sitting in a waiting area to pass the time. The characters are cute and interesting. The illustrations are beautifully done. As an educator and a parent, I would recommend this book fo4 any child who likes to solve puzzles. I will buy this for the children in my life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spot the Clues and Crack the Codes to help Penelope find her birthday surprise.

I really loved this book, and I think one of the reasons I liked it so much is that I can see it being read on different levels.

This book is a treasure hunt, a treasure hunt for a birthday surprise. Penelope has been left a birthday surprise somewhere in her Uncle Custard's mansion, Custard Manor. He gives her (and the reader) instructions on the first page on how it works, search each room for the clue, solve the puzzle to tell you where to go next. There's even a floor plan of the house, which I love.

This is where I think the book can be used in different ways. For the conscientious reader, you can follow the directions precisely, not turning the page until you have found all of the objects listed on the page, found all of the puffins, found the clue, solved the puzzle and can guess what the next room (page) will be. *There are solutions at the back of the book if you get stuck.

For the reader who doesn't want to stick to those rules, that's ok. They may just want to count the puffins and find the objects listed at the side of the page, or just immerse themselves in the illustrations, as there's so much going on in them.

That's the beauty of the book, because it just doesn't matter. The illustrations are super detailed, but not so much so that it's impossible to find what you're looking for. Similarly, the clues are tricky, but not frustratingly so.

The one thing that I would have loved, and I feel this with most look and find books, is that I would love there to be a small illustration of the objects to find, alongside the words. To only have the words, means that young non-reader, won't be able to read the word to know what they're looking for, the picture would mean that they could use this book on their own. That's just a small gripe, and I know this book is aimed at an older reader, one who can read, and is able to solve the clues, and like I said there's so much going on in the illustrations I think readers (and non-readers ) of all ages can get something out of this!

There are spots to fill in the answers on some of the pages, so this will be problematic for schools and libraries, as writing in books is not something they encourage ;)

This book provides an adventure page by page for the reader. The reader becomes Penelope and uses clues to find a birthday surprise. Clues are hidden in detailed illustrated pages full of cute animals.

Adorable. This had my youngest and me enthralled with the activities and art. It's just as challenging for adults as it is for children. With thanks to NetGalley for the preview, I'll be picking this up for my nephew.

A puzzle book as opposed to a story book, this is a delight for young children. It’s packed full of puzzles and games, the most fun being the ‘find the items in the pictures’, each of which is beautifully illustrated and each showing a fun and chaotic scene, There are also a few number puzzles, mazes to work through and more. I read this book with my 5 and 7 year olds who both thoroughly enjoyed it. I would say it held the attention of my 5 year old a bit more. Great fun, colourful and a joy to read to my girls.

If you loved the look-and-find books as a kid, then you will love this as a tween or older. There are plenty of beautiful calming, yet busy pictures to find items in, but then there are also puzzles to solve using paper at home. Math problems, word problems, mazes, and all sorts of fun. I really enjoyed this book and would love to hold it and help figure out all the problems. This would make a great gift, especially since it is the characters birthday.
Just reviewed Penelope Strudel by Brendan Kearney. #PenelopeStrudel #NetGalley

The publisher made a copy of the book available for review via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion,

Penelope Strudel is one of the most fun activity books for children that we have come across. It has enough story to engage the children but doesn't take over the activities. The illustrations are so beautiful and will make you love the book before you even open it up!

Your little ones will not be disappointed in this book which is perfect for birthday gifting!

A fun, playful hidden object book, packed with character and colorful illustrations. Perfect for young readers and fans of hidden object books!