Sometimes, the best way to navigate unfamiliar territory is with a trusted co-pilot.

Allison Aydin turned to her twin sister, Claire Fox, for help in writing her first book.

They have published Look & Find Bermuda, a “vibrant photo riddle book” that challenges readers to find “iconic Bermuda treasures” and everyday items hidden amid a colourful hodgepodge.

A longtail feather, a Bermuda Gombey, a scooter and a piece of sea glass are on the long list of things to search for. On each page there is a Bermuda hog penny and a turtle, a favourite of Ms Fox.

The authors designed the book to capture the interest of people no matter what their age.

Look & Find was a first for Ms Aydin, who works in the marketing department of a large construction company and did not have any experience as an author. She was inspired by Elliot’s I Spy, a book her sister created for their nephew a couple of years before.

“After I had my second child, last December, I was spending a lot of time doing 'look and find’ books with my older son, Oliver. So it just sort of led from there – Claire has already created a book like this, it would be kind of fun to build upon that and create something for my boys.”

The idea then “sort of just snowballed” into publishing something of their own.

“So that was sort of the inspiration,” Ms Aydin said. “I didn't have any aspirations of being a children’s book writer. It was just having kids and a feeling for what they were interested in.”

Having her sister’s book made the process a bit easier. Parts of it were used in Look & Find Bermuda, with Bermuda-specific content merged in.

“We created some new pages so that it was purely Bermuda inspired, because some of her pages were things that were specific to our family or to our nephew, Elliot. So we made it more generally Bermudian, and went with that.”

Ms Aydin, who has lived in Toronto, Canada, since leaving the island for university in 2008 but frequently returns to visit friends and family, wrote much of the new material, while Ms Fox, who still lives here, contributed local content.

“We’ve always been close. We always work well together and so that was kind of fun,” Ms Aydin said.

She added that she decided to proceed despite her sister’s warning that it would likely be more work than she anticipated.

“She had obviously gone through the whole process on a personal scale to do one for our nephew. And she's always right. But it was an exciting challenge and it was fun to work on.”

Both Ms Aydin and her sister, a science education officer at ASU Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the mother of a one-year-old daughter, liked that they were creating something that would benefit their own children.

“Captivating books have the power to inspire a lifelong love of reading and learning,” Ms Fox said.

Glossy photographs taken by the twins are filled with hidden items to search for, while rhymes beneath the pictures provide hints about what can be found.

“It’s kind of like an ‘I Spy’ book but ‘I Spy’ is copyrighted, so it's a look and find,” Ms Aydin explained.

“We collected items from around our homes so we have Bermuda-themed things and also just a random collection of things that you can look for; colourful objects to find. And then we put together the riddles to look for Bermuda items and for some more general things.”

Writing the book and publishing it took “the better part of a year”.

“I had a bit of a slow start getting off the ground just in terms of having a newborn and figuring out our routine; figuring out what we wanted to and how we wanted to do it,” she said.

Everyone who has seen the book has been “very supportive and very encouraging”.

“It was a fun project that we worked on. Hopefully it will be interesting for a wider audience, it'll be well received.”

Their hope is that the book will introduce Bermuda to a wider audience. Ms Aydin was grateful it offered her the opportunity to keep her connection with the island alive for her sons.

“Though we’re lucky to visit family on the island often, I wanted my boys to have a piece of Bermuda with them, no matter where we are,” she said.

The book isn’t aimed at any specific age group. Ms Aydin believes the book has a broad appeal that should make it interesting to nearly everyone.

“There are some items that are quite easy to find that will be appealing to the younger audience. But there's also definitely some trickier items that hopefully will keep older children and even adults engaged,” she said.

“We just hope that the book will inspire kids to read a bit more, to ask questions, to be curious. We’re hoping that maybe they see something and they ask a parent, ‘Why is this important to Bermuda?’ We're just hoping to spark the love of learning and reading that we grew up with.”

• Look & Find Bermuda is available at Bermuda Bookstore and The Island Shop