They bought a weekend house in Colebrook in the mid 1980's and moved there full-time in 1991. But he left the city for northwestern Connecticut nearly a decade ago. He eventually settled with his wife, Linda, a prop stylist, in Manhattan, where he did his first ''I Spy'' book. Wick was raised in East Granby and is a graduate of Paier College of Art in Hamden. His collaborator, Jean Marzollo, writes rhymed picture riddles that run across the bottom of each page, naming hidden objects readers must find within. Wick has arranged and photographed a dizzying array of tiny themed objects, with each tableaux creating its own spell-binding world.

Each book contains about a dozen two-page spreads in which Mr. The apparent simplicity behind the ''I Spy'' concept is deceptive. Wick has spawned three CD-ROMS, a board game, puzzles, and five ''I Spy'' board books for toddlers. In addition to his 10 ''I Spy'' books, Mr. The books have sold 11 million copies in 12 languages. Wick's visual imagination and technical skill have fueled a world-wide phenomenon from this struggling mill town of 11,400 in the northwest corner of the state. From a defunct knitting mill in Winsted, the photographer Walter Wick has created the ''I Spy'' series of photographic picture riddle books for children that have them and their parents searching for clues embedded in one elaborate scene after another. IGNORE the battered steam roller, chain link fence and potholed parking lot that lead to the unlikely scene of one of the more surprising success stories in American publishing.

I spy books walter wick