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Rating: 
Summary: Bait and Switch
Review: Beware, all the pictures in this book have already been published in different cover, an earlier edition. If you think it is a new book of Steiner's work, it isn't, so don't get suckered.
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Summary: I think this works better as a coffee table book
Review: I bought this book for my nephews and niece (ages 11, 9 and 4) who came to visit this summer. I was so excited at purchase! The incredibly clever scenes take hours to comb through, and you really view a lot of these objects differently after seeing the book. (Buildings made of fig newtons; thumbtack glassware at the soda fountain; an upside-down iron as a boat.) However the actual children were a bit blown away. They looked at it and were interested, however many of the objects used were things they'd simply never seen and so couldn't pick out. What 4-year-old can tell that a bunch of tulips is really pistachios on sticks? Even the 11-year-old had never seen a flour sifter and therefore wasn't impressed by the sifter/water tower. On the other hand, their mother (age 34) and my boyfriend (age 33) spent as many hours as I did on this book and are still delighted with it. I personally collect beautiful children's books as a cost-effective alternative to coffee-table books. For my purposes, Look-Alikes is absolutely perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Bait and Switch
Review: I wish this book had been around when I was young--I would have sat looking at it for hours. The illustrations are games for the eye and the mind. "Look, the wheels are doughnuts!" "Oh, they made teabags into windowshades!" The pictures tease the child into looking further and further, while the adult marvels at the patience and ingenuity of the author. If you have ever been fascinated by miniatures or dollhouses or train model layouts, you will love these books.
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Summary: Endlessly interesting for kids and adults alike!
Review: Joan Steiner's "Look-Alikes" is endlessly interesting for kids and adults alike. This self-taught artist employs everyday items--tea bags, Fig Newtons, miniature hair combs, matches, tissues, strips of licorice, graham crackers, torn-up sponges, pencils, and so much more--to create the most astonishingly lifelike scenes. You can see everything from a port city with boats arriving to a soda shop to a candy store to a classroom, each filled to brimming with trinkets and everyday articles of every kind, each employed as something other than what it really is (Fig Newtons as seat cushions, for example). The result is utterly fascinating. You will spend hours looking through the book--you may even, as I have, try to hide it from your kids so YOU can finish looking at it! Highly recommended.
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Summary: Waaaay better than 'Where's Waldo"!
Review: The pictures in this book are just stunning, and so clever. I've had this book for a year now (we keep it in our bathroom) and I've still not found everything! Each photograph is magnificent, and well taken, while the collages - for want of a better name - are really ingenious. Some objects take forever to find - the peanut pony tail, the mushroom car tires, and some are perfectly obvious, though you'd never have considered that a disposable razor could look like a vacuum cleaner. It's beautiful to look at and fun to explore. If only Steiner had left it at that and not tried to write poetry to go with it. The rhymes are unbelievably inane and stilted and take away from rather than add to the book. This edition may actually be too difficult for children, as many adults seem to have trouble finding all the objects. "Look-Alikes Jr." came out soon afterwards and is much simpler, though just as much fun; much more suited to the under 12's and the less patient! This book will last so long and provide so much enjoyment that it's well worth buying for the whole family.
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Summary: Beware! Do not buy if you don't have a few hours to spend!
Review: This book is wonderful! What creativity took place in each picture. This allows your child many many hours of enjoyment and for you too. What fun! I agree with the review and hope for a sequel, which would make a great series!
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Summary: Look Alikes
Review: This is a book that has been entertaining to all family members from the age of 9 to 78 years of age. Each person who picks it up cannot bear to part with it. The colors and photo layouts of each page are filled with warmth and depth. Even without close scrutiny the immediate "feel" of the photos is that you are glimpsing into a moment of time long gone. There is an "old world" feel to the pictures. Upon closer review you are repeatedly amazed at how your eye first deceived you. Absolute creative genius is what makes this book one to purchase-for any age. Especially wonderful for those who love puzzles and DETAIL. No detail is left out and no detail is left to its own nature. A twist on reality that delights you with every turn of every page. A must buy for sure.
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Summary: It's just too much fun for your eyes!
Review: This is a wonderful book. My ten year old son loved it! He spent hours looking at all the pictures and trying to figure out how they were made. You can see something new in each incredible picture every time you look at it! Our school library has ordered several copies. The creativity in this book is just too much fun.
Rating:
Summary: A clever book!
Review: This was a clever book! I memorized many of the look-alikes in this book and pretend Boston is Look-Alike City.
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Summary: Original
Review: We are lucky enough to own a signed first edition of this spectacular book of 11 photographs, each one more artistic than the last. The Barnard graduate author, a self-taught artist, created a deft and clever craft that enchants young and old alike. Each of her two-page spreads presents a quaint scene fashioned entirely from everyday objects. The result is one of the most original children's books I have ever seen. The book opens with a steam engine made from a coffeepot and four train cars made from a briefcase, cardboard box, pocketbook and six pack box. They ride on a track fashioned of screwdrivers and TV antenna. The decorative details prove equally delightful. The engine's wheels are made of cap guns, rolls of film, batteries, ballpoint pen tops, toy handcuffs and wristwatch and compass faces. The train chugs forward with cotton steam pouring from a thread spool smokestack, and its toy truck, harmonica and nail clipper cowcatcher at the fore. A train station (the next stop) is built of fever thermometers, disposable razors, paint brushes, measuring tape, tennis rackets, silverware holders, an egg slicer and a vegetable steamer. The other scenes include a city-scape, general store, park and zoo, amusement park, sweet shop, hotel and circus. You get the picture. For anyone who can't figure out what's what, the author includes a seven-page appendix describing the type and number of trinkets with which she filled each scene. This book provides endless fun. Alyssa A. Lappen
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