By Breeana Greenberg, Dec 13, 2024, Dana Point Times

Dana Point artist and author Laura Seeley holds a copy of her new search-and-find book. 

While growing up in Andover, MA, Dana Point artist and author Laura Seeley loved search-and-find puzzles.

“I beelined right for the one page in the Highlights Magazine,” Seeley said. “It was one page, just a pencil drawing, but it had all these hidden things to find … and I couldn’t get enough of it, and I thought, when I grow up, I’m going to do something like this.”

In her 20s, Seeley began working on her first book, a search-and-find titled The Book of Shadowboxes: A Story of the ABCs. The book took about six years to finish and was published just before her 30th birthday. 

 “It then won the award for Best Children’s Literature, ran for 30 years … then just as COVID began, it went out of print,” Seeley said. 

“The concept had played a huge part of the book’s success.” Seeley said. “But over three decades later, I’d become a better writer and artist, and I thought the book deserved a makeover with what I can do today. So in late 2021, I went back to work. After a solid two-year  makeover, I’d fallen back in love with the book.  And I gave it a new title.”

“Today’s book has fresh design, presents with more dimensional art and is much richer in content,” Seeley continued. “I added more things to find and even added illustrated words into the art.

“The Search and Find World of Shadowboxes: Rediscover the ABCs engages well beyond mastering your ABCs,” Seeley said. “It inspires kids to want to learn more about words, and what the words mean.

The 64-page book consists of a verse for each letter of the alphabet that includes various words beginning with the featured letter. Surrounding the verse about the featured letter is a list of the items that can be found in the shadowbox.

The accompanying art is presented in shadowboxes, Seeley explained, “which are those things that you put on a wall with little compartments with little miniatures of things.”

A few letters have several functions.  Take ‘G’, for instance… G has a gift. It goes three different ways. For the gingerbread gents, G is soft like the Js. G is hard for green grapes or for ghosts and gumballs. But the gnome has a G that you don’t hear at all,” Seeley said, noting that the reader can find gingerbread men, grapes, ghosts, gumballs, gnomes and other G-words and things in the shadowbox design. 

“For each letter, I picked fun words, objects and animals that I think are visually pleasing and help make learning fun,” Seeley continued.

While Seeley said the book is perfect for children ages 2 to 10, she noted those of all ages can enjoy the search-and-find in the art. 

“As a ‘read to me,’ 2-year-olds, while new to much of the material, are hugely visual. As they soak it in, and it can certainly jump-start their young brains for more,” Seeley said. “It continues to engage kids long after they’ve mastered their ABCs.  It’s fun to spell, to search, to find, to understand, and, wow, it’s fun to learn.”

“People love to gift books to kids, but it’s even more exciting when they can have the author sign it to the child, and that personalizes it,” Seeley said. “In this case, with a book built around the alphabet, For this book I phrase it, ‘A is for Aiden’ or ‘B is for Breeana,’ because it’s built around the alphabet, and kids like seeing their names in books.”

The Search and Find World of Shadowboxes: Rediscover the ABCs is available for purchase in Seeley’s website. The website also features an option to include a note for the author to include a personalized signing. 

Locals can also stop by her studio and gallery at 24682 Del Prado Avenue in Dana Point to pick up a copy.