A half decade ago, I learned something about my wife that really shocked me. We were at one of those restaurants that offers customers fun things to do while waiting at the table for their food. I looked past the trivia cards and peg games to a book from my childhood. I grabbed it and asked Sid, “Remember this?”

This was the Where’s Waldo book that was at our table back in 2019 when Sidney looked through it for the first time.

Well, she didn’t.

I had in my hands the red-book version of the “Where’s Waldo” series. Sidney had never looked through one of the pop culture-significant books before. Surprised out of mind, I told her that today was as good as any to delve into the world of Waldo. Apparently she was given a heavy dose of beginner’s luck because she smoked me on numerous pages as we raced to see who could find Waldo first.

In the same way that you only notice how many makes/models of a specific car are on the road once you own the vehicle yourself, I think the popularity of Waldo started to take hold on Sid after that dinner. She started to notice the extremely popular Waldo Halloween costume, the references to “finding Waldo” in crowded situations, and even the children’s animated series that Sloan started watching shortly thereafter. There is no doubt about it, Waldo is a bona fide celebrity superstar.

Anyway, I say all this to bring up the fact that I checked out a “Where’s Waldo” book from the library the other day. I knew when I brought it home that Sidney wouldn’t give me a blank look on what it was. I figured we could open it up with the kids and see who could find Waldo first like we had done many times over the past five years. For me, it was kind of cool to find a “Where’s Waldo” book that I had never laid eyes on before after 30+ years of searching the classic yellow/blue/red books.

Latching onto “The Wonder Book” after finding it on one of the shelves in the library.

The excitement faded to frustration as finding Waldo in this new book proved to be incredibly elusive. After trying in vain to find Waldo in most of the scenes, I looked up “Where’s Waldo” on Wikipedia to see if there was something I missing. I learned that after the classic books came out, the ensuing Waldo books were purposely harder. Increasing in difficulty with each new release, the illustrator made the scenes more crowded and Waldo smaller. No wonder I felt so miffed!

Needless to say, “The Wonder Book” was a little more than we could handle. If I couldn’t even find the guy in red and white stripes, you can probably imagine how “fun” it was for the kids. Oh, well.
Just a few brief additional things about Waldo…

Sloan and Beau holding “The Wonder Book.”

– As a kid, I learned to draw from celebrity artist Mark Kistler. He recommended to look at “Where’s Waldo” books for drawing inspiration.

– Illustrator Martin Hanford says it takes him about eight weeks to draw a single “Where’s Waldo” scene.

– While looking through “The Wonder Book” I learned that other characters are also now included in each scene. There is his evil alter-ego Odlaw, a red and white-striped female counterpart named Wenda, a wizard, and more.

– In Britain, Waldo is know as Wally.

– I used to wear a red and white striped shirt that my friends would mock me for and call it my “Waldo” shirt.

An actual photo of me in my “Waldo” shirt with my mom from 2012. I wore this all the time over the course of many years.

Do you have any “Where’s Waldo” stories? Do you incorporate them into anything you do with your kids? Let me know. Don’t Blink.