Walter Wick

Walter Wick
250px Wick at the Mazza Museum in 2013
Born	Walter Wick (1953-02-23) February 23, 1953 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Artist, photographer, writer

Walter Wick (born February 23, 1953) is an American artist and photographer best known for the elaborate images in two series of picture book activities for young children, I Spy (1992 to 1999) and Can You See What I See? (from 2002), both published by Scholastic.

Wick was born in Hartford, Connecticut and attended the Paier College of Art. After school he embarked on a career as a commercial photographer and eventually shifted to photo-illustration for books and magazines. He contributed to Scholastic's Let's Find Out and Super Science series and photographed hundreds of mass-market magazine covers. He also created photographic puzzles for Games magazine.

In 1991 Wick began a collaboration with writer Jean Marzollo on the enormously successful I Spy search-and-find picture books. Eight original titles were produced and millions of copies sold.

Wick received the Boston Globe-Horn Book first prize for non-fiction for his book A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder. His book Walter Wick's Optical Tricks was named one of the year's "best illustrated books" by The New York Times. In 2003 Wick and his wife purchased an abandoned 1920 firehouse from the city of Hartford and renovated the building to become a new studio for his artwork. Wick's collection of work, Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos, and Toys in the Attic, continues to exhibit in museums across the country including the Vero Beach Museum of Art, the Shelburne Museum and Brigham Young University Museum of Art.

Selected publications

• I Spy: A Book of Picture Riddles (1992)
• I Spy: Christmas (1992)
• I Spy: Fun House (1993)
• I Spy: Mystery (1993)
• I Spy: Fantasy (1994)
• I Spy: School Days (1995)
• I Spy: Spooky Night (1996)
• "I Spy: Super Challenger" (1997)
• A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder (1997)
• "I Spy: Gold Challenger" (1998)
• Walter Wick's Optical Tricks (1998)
• I Spy: Treasure Hunt (1999)
• "I Spy: Extreme Challenger" (2000)
• "I Spy: Year-Round Challenger" (2001)
• Can You See What I See?: Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve (2002)
• Can You See What I See?: Dream Machine (2003)
• Can You See What I See?: Cool Collections (2004)
• Can You See What I See?: The Night Before Christmas (2005)
• Can You See What I See?: Once Upon A Time (2006)
• Can You See What I See?: On A Scary Scary Night (2008)
• "I Spy: A To Z" (2009)
• Can You See What I See?: Treasure Ship (2010)
• "I Spy: Spectacular" (2011)
• Can You See What I See?: Toyland Express (2011)
• Can You See What I See?: Out Of This World (2013)
• "Hey, Seymour!" (2015)

Sources

• "About the author" information, I Spy Fun House: A Book of Picture Riddles by Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo, New York, Scholastic, 1993, p. 37.
• "Artist's Statement" Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos, and Toys in the Attic by Walter Wick, Brigham Young University, 2009.

External links

• Official website
• Interview by Children's Literature
• Walter Wick at Library of Congress Authorities, with 62 catalog records