Pocketful of Puzzles

Alexander Craig is a freelance journalist in Lennoxville, Quebec.

Lillian Marcus has devised various kinds of word puzzles for children and adults for a whole range of publications, from the Toronto Star to OWL Magazine. She has also contributed to the Ontario Science Centre Newsletter, Air Canada’s publication for young children, and the Toronto Symphony’s program. This is her latest children’s puzzle book.

The main part of the book is devoted to crossword puzzles. Solutions are provided for them, as for all the other puzzles. The rest consists of variations on crossword puzzles, with clear instructions provided: these will be particularly useful and interesting for children not quite yet at the crossword stage. There are a few pages of anagrams too.

Jokes are thoughtfully provided at the bottom of many pages: children are bound to be delighted by this along with everything else. There are also a lot of amusing kangaroo-style illustrations by Vlasta van Kampen. All in all it’s a good inexpensive book which should provide a lot of fun to a lot of little people.