Walter Wick Books In Order

Publication Order of Children's Books

Walter Wick is a reputed American writer, photographer, and artist. He is well known for working on children’s books and fiction/adventure novels. Wick is particularly famous for doing the illustrations in the two popular series of picture books for young children, Can You See What I See and I Spy. Both these series have been supported by the Scholastic publication.

Author Wick has been active in the field of writing and illustration since the early 1990s. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and spent his earlier years growing up in the rural region of East Granby. It was his brother who introduced him to the world of photography when they were quite young.

Since then, Wick has never looked back and has developed an enormously successful career for himself. He was a student of photojournalism during his graduation days at the Paier College of Art. Following his graduation, author Wick relocated to New York and became the owner of a studio. Initially, he began his career in the field of commercial photography.

After a few years of hustle, he shifted his focus towards photo illustration for magazines and books. When he approached Scholastic for illustration work, they allowed him to work on a couple of their series, such as Super Science and Let’s Find Out. Wick impressed them with his work and continued doing illustrations for a number of other projects under their banner.

Besides this, he continued to do photographic work for hundreds of magazine covers for numerous mass-market labels. One of the unique works of author Wick at that time was creating photographic puzzles and games for the Games magazine. It was in 1991 that Wick started a collaboration with Jean Marzollo, the popular author of I Spy books, for the first time.

Together, the pair worked on enormously successful and popular search & find picture books. At first, they succeeded in creating 8 original titles and managed to sell millions of copies of the books worldwide. For his extraordinary work in his debut novel, A Drop Of Water, Wick was awarded first prize at the Boston Globe-Horn Book contest. He followed up the success by getting his book selected on the NY Times’ list of one of the best-illustrated books of the year with his second title called Walter Wick’s Optical Tricks.

In 2003, author Wick persuaded his wife, Linda Cheverton Wick, in purchasing an abandoned firehouse from 1920 in Hartford City. They successfully renovated it into a lovely art studio and now consider it as one of their cherished possessions. Author Wick has a work collection in his name containing games, puzzles, gizmos, etc., that he exhibits in museums throughout the country.

Some of the popular museums that have showcased his work include the Shelbourne Museum, Brigham Young University Art Museum, and the Vero Beach Museum. Today, Wick lives a happily married life with his wife Linda, who used to work as a photo-prop stylist for cookbooks and magazines.

Linda has now retired and provides a helping hand to Wick in his illustrative works. As of today, Wick and Linda live in Miami Beach, Florida, where Wick continues to work from the comfort of his studio and create exciting picture books.

An exciting book written by author Walter Wick in the early days of his career is entitled ‘A Drop Of Water’. It was released in 1997 by the Scholastic Press publication. It is said that this book contains the most spectacular photos ever created by Wick on the topic of water. This science book is unique in its own ways. It appears as if the camera has stopped the action to magnify the different amazing states and one can observe water in its various forms.

Wick has managed to capture water in the form of ice, stream, rainbow, dew, frost, etc. As the readers go through this book, they are able to examine the water drops as they fall from a washbasin. They can also see water droplets splashing on a rough surface. Wick has even shown how people can count snowflake points and wonder how water drops go on to form clouds.

Throughout this amazing picture book, Wick has spoken about the marvels of water, not in words but through illustrations. All in all, this nonfiction book describes the smallest parts of water, its different forms, including solid, gas, and liquid, and the effects it produces on weather and nature.

Wick has also talked about several experiments with water that can be tried by anyone. Each picture used by Wick is zoomed in to depict minute details. The clarity of those pictures draws the focus of readers to every little detail. Many readers have praised the efforts of Wick in explaining the details with real scenarios from everyday life. He has even included things that readers could easily experiment with themselves. They like the deliberate and careful order of the book.

First, Wick has explained water’s various capabilities in the liquid form. Then, he moves on to talk about the gas and solid forms. Many critics believe that this book is best suited for younger readers. It is quite informative and can easily engage readers from the age group of intermediate to advance.

Some have said that this book can also be used to deliver science lessons in the classroom and performs experiments in schools’ laboratories. Overall, Wick has done a fabulous job and has shown why he is so much respected in his field of work.

Another wonderful picture book penned by Wick is known as ‘A Ray Of Light’. It was also published by Scholastic in 2019. This book is also written as a science book and captures the photographic exploration of the science behind light. The book opens by mentioning how light’s wonder has fascinated people for ages. Wick’s mesmerizing photos paired with scientific observations and simple text enable readers to understand the complexity and secrets of light.

Through this work, Wick has attempted to show what things make light and how everything in the world is able to fit the light in itself. The readers are introduced to the mystery of light waves, iridescence, incandescence, color spectrum, etc. Wick’s photographic explanation shows how people perceive light in the human world and beyond.