The frigid Chicago weather has forced us all inside for the winter, but that only means one thing—it’s puzzle season! It’s time to scatter the pieces of your first 1,000 jigsaw puzzle in the middle of the floor, to tell an elaborate story using tangram puzzle pieces or to challenge each other to brain teasers over dinner. Puzzles can entertain us, but deciphering their solutions can also help us develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills.
Each year, National Puzzle Day on January 29th reminds us how to bring fun and games indoors. What puzzle will you solve this season?
Do you like I Spy books or spot the difference games? The Odd One Out challenges young readers to find the one image that differs from the rest, guided by a rhyming question on each page. Can you find the one turtle hiding in its shell or the one-humped camel among those with two humps? Check out Britta Teckentrup’s other spotting books for more fun.
If you don’t have a tangram puzzle yet, you might want one after reading The Quest for A Tangram Dragon. This picture book follows a singular tangram puzzle piece on its journey for a dragon to end a drought, meeting each of its fellow tangram shapes along the way. Liu-Perkins weaves Chinese myth and culture into this amusing picture book that combines art, math and storytelling. What will you make out of your tangram puzzle?
Can you help the scuba diver through the deep, fluorescent-filled waters? How does the king’s guest navigate the many twisty paths of the castle? Each page of Labyrinth contains imaginative mazes and find-it challenges for readers to solve. This oversized book with large, captivating images welcomes both solo solvers and family fun.
Are there any detectives out there? Good, because someone needs to discover who stole the captain’s watch, who burned the essays at the boarding school, and more in Sleuth & Solve! Readers will need to pay close attention for clues to solve each of these 23 mini-mysteries. Can you sleuth and solve them all? For science- and history-themed mysteries, check out more from Víctor Escandell.
For those curious about some real-life puzzle solvers, this picture book biography highlights how Elizebeth Friedman pioneered the field of cryptography and solved ciphers during both of the world wars. With examples of ciphers and a well-cited history of cryptology, Code Breaker, Spy Hunter sheds light on the secret history of code breakers. Will she inspire you to create your own cipher? For older readers, check out Spying on Spies or The Enigma Girls for chapter book biographies on how women played a key role in solving ciphers during WWII.
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