The I-SPY book series

When children are travelling on a long car journey, a popular game to pass the time is“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…”  and the first letter of a nearby object. Others try to guess the object and the game goes around. This was the inspiration for the ‘I-SPY‘ book series, launched in 1948 by headmaster, Charles Worrell (1889-1995) from Somerset.

Worrell wanted to encourage children to be observant of their outdoor environment and pick up interesting facts along the way. So the I-Spy books were educational and helped to develop hobbies and interests, since children had to write in their books when and where they spotted particular varieties of the book’s topic, e.g. dogs, horses, churches, aircraft, etc..

Millions of children have enjoyed the books, which were initially self-published, then taken on by a succession of publishers, with Michelin Travel Publications being the current owners. In 1983-87 TV presenter David Bellamy put his name to some of the British wildlife titles, including ‘I-SPY Creepy Crawlies’ and ‘I-SPY Garden Birds’. The most enduring titles over the decades are ‘I-SPY Cars’ and ‘I-SPY on a Train Journey’, which refer back to the original “I spy…” idea of keeping boredom at bay.

(Image: Leo Reynolds at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA/2.0)