Lost and Found: Adele and Simon in China by McClintock - ESSENTIAL

McClintock, Barbara Lost and Found: Adele and Simon in China. PICTURE BOOK. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2016. $17.99.

 Adele and her brother Simon have traveled to China for a visit with their Uncle Sidney, a photographer. At the beginning of their journey, Uncle Sidney buys Adele a camera of her own and gets Simon a whole knapsack of treasures like a scarf, an abacus and a fan, to name a few. As they journey through China, Simon loses everything! Upon returning and developing her photos, Adele discovers each one holds the image of one of Simon’s missing items. 

The fun for the reader is in looking for the missing items as the journey goes on. Along with each image is a postcard from Adele to her mother that tells the story of their journey. I thought this was a unique and beautiful look at China. McClintock’s illustrations are lovely and remarkably detailed, but it is still possible to readily find Simon’s missing items if you look closely. The information and look at China will be more interesting to older readers, but younger audiences will still enjoy searching for Simon’s missing things. 

EL (K-3), EL—ESSENTIAL. Reviewer: TC