DS 2.10 has recently fallen in love with a 'Where's Waldo?' book and wants it every night at bedtime. Which is great in theory, except I find that there's something about the combination of tiny/busy pictures and the specific artwork style in it that really triggers my own OE's in a bad way - I actually find it disturbing to look at, although I can't quite put my finger on why.

Can anyone else suggest some different options in the "small detail seek-and-find book" type department?

I Spy!!! They have Do You See What I See? as well, which is a "younger" version.

A lot of the Graeme Base books have small details to seek and find.

Hidden Pictures from Highlights might work because the pages are to be colored by the child - maybe you can try having your son point to the objects at bedtime and color them the next day.

I consulted the peanuts, and they recommended (in order from youngest to oldest intended readers): Lorna and Graham Philpot's "Anthony Ant" series, the Usborne fantasy puzzle series (Knight Quest, Sword Quest, Dragon Quest, etc.), and Anna Nilsen's art books (Art Fraud Detective, Art Auction Mystery, The Great Art Scandal).

Hope some of those might suit--

peace
minnie

A couple more afterthoughts:

Usborne also has a series called "Look, Puzzle, Learn"; the titles are things like The Big Bug Search, The Great Undersea Search, The Great World Tour, etc.

Stephen T. Johnson's "City by Numbers" and "Alphabet City" are two nice books where you have to find numbers or letters embedded in paintings. (ETA: There's a similar book, with black and white photos instead of paintings, called "A City ABC" by Zoran Milich, which was my favourite of these sorts of books.)

One of mine used to like Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go." There are a few recurring things you're meant to find on each page.

Nick Bryant and somebody or other whose name I forget have a series called "Spot What." They're very "I Spy"-ish.

Oh, "The Quiltmaker's Gift" has a big poster-ish illustration on the back of the dustjacket where you're meant to find all the quilt patterns mentioned in the book, I think (haven't read that one for a long time).

Not quite the same, but very nice, are the Mitsumasa Anno books--there are lots of titles, and while they are not really "seek and find" kind of books, there is a lot of detail to ponder in the illustrations (you might look at Anno's Counting Book, for instance).

Hope that helps!

mm