7 ways we made our new search-and-find book even better than its predecessor
4 minute readImproving a bestseller
When we set out to make the sequel to our bestselling search-and-find book, we didn’t just want to repeat the winning formula, we wanted to make the book better in every way.
Even though the original has thousands of five star reviews, we thought we could do better and we humbly believe we’ve succeeded.
Here are seven ways we’ve improved on the original:
1. No two books are the same
In 2018, we watched our kids in dismay / amusement as they gave our search-and-find book to their friends and then pointed out all the places they were hiding because they were in the same places as their own books. We decided there and then to make the hiding places different in future books so they can’t spoil the fun for others.
In the sequel, there are three hiding places in every country, one of which is assigned at random when your book is created. With so many different hiding places, this means there’s only a one in 177,000 chance that two books are the same. Take that, spoilers!
2. Bigger in every way
While our original showed your little ones ten beautiful locations around the world, the sequel goes one better and has eleven locations.
Not only that, but the book also comes in a new Jumbo hardback format, which is 26% bigger than the standard size for even more search-and-find fun. We chose 26% because that makes it 30cm high and that’s the absolute biggest our printers can print, so we can safely say it’s the biggest personalised book you can buy.
Incidentally, the origin of the term Jumbo was an enormous elephant in the 1860s called Jumbo (based on the Swahili word “jambo” meaning “hello”) which was part of PT. Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth.
3. More personalisation options, fewer hats
You asked for more personalisation and no hats, so we added:
- Two new hairstyles
- Different eye shapes
- Freckles
- One new outfit
And, best of all, none of the characters have to wear a hat. In the original, we made the character wear a hat so that it was easily identifiable. We’re now sure that the children will still identify themselves just by their appearance without the hat. A big victory for anti-hatters everywhere.
4. Super personalised covers
We wrote a blog post last month about how we developed the cover, which you can read here. Suffice to say, it’s our most personalised cover ever. As well as choosing the child’s name and appearance, you can also choose one of six colours for the cover and which one of the eleven countries the child is looking at out of the window. We think it feels just like a travel guide.
5. More funny things to look for
One evening in May, the whole Librio team got together to brainstorm what funny elements should be in each location. We also worked with natives of every country to add some local jokes. As a result, there are dozens of funny things for little ones and grown ups to find on every page. Here are some of our favourites:
- Angela Merkel waiting in line for a vegetarian kebab in Berlin
- That lady who floated away on an iceberg while taking a selfie in Iceland
- A pro and anti EU couple having a bit of an argument in England
- Kids having a baguette fight in Paris
- Salvador Dali riding one of his elephants in Barcelona
- Two Librio founders sinking in their boat in Zurich (true story)
- Mythical creatures hiding in Greece
- Clumsy tourists dropping plates in Turkey
- Our ubiquitous penguin dressed as a bat in Transylvania
- A real life family of Matroskas in Russia
- People taking part in the husband and wife race in Finland
We hope you enjoy finding these and many others!
6. A journey through time as well as place
As your little one journeys through the book, they also journey through changing seasons, marking the passage of time as you travel. This way, they can experience Paris in the springtime and Stonehenge at the summer solstice before travelling to Transylvania as the leaves fall and witnessing an endless winter’s night in the arctic circle of Finland.
7. More environmentally friendly transport
Partly thanks to the actions of young activists around the world, people are a lot more conscious about how they get around than they were in 2018, so we got rid of the jet planes from the original and replaced them with a lovely rail and boat trip around Europe, complete with rail ticket motifs on the pages. What better way to explore the continent? We’re sure Greta herself would approve.
We know you love our original search-and-find and we do too, so we’re extremely excited to be releasing a sequel which we believe is even better. We hope all the improvements we’ve made to create My search-and-find European Trip, will give your little ones hours more fun of immersing themselves in the wonderfully vibrant cultures that our planet has to offer.