Where's Waldo?

by Martin Handford

Challenged Children's Book

Waldo likes to get around and can be spotted in various locations in the Where’s Waldo? series.  Waldo, always dressed in a conspicuous red and white striped shirt, red and white winter cap, jeans, and black-framed glasses, visits many places, such as a museum, campsite, city, and the beach. Each scene in the book is very detailed and animated and it’s fun looking for Waldo on the double-paged spread of organized chaos that is the standard in these books.

Sounds innocent enough. And the Waldo books have been  well-loved for years. So why does Walso make the list of Challenged Children’s Books?

In the first Waldo book, 1987 edition, in the beach scene, one of the hundreds of characters on this very crowded beach is a topless sunbathing woman who exposes her bare breasts when a boy appears to throw sand on her back. 

Waldo is not anywhere near the topless woman, but the scene was considered inappropriate so that the book was actually banned in many schools and libraries.

Subsequent editions of the book showed the woman with her top on.

Handford, M. (1987). Where’s Waldo? London, UK: Little Brown & Co.