Introduction
This is no ordinary book. For one thing, you don’t write in an ordinary book. We heartily encourage you to write all over this one. For another thing, an ordinary book has chapters to be read in order—otherwise, you might find out “who done it” before you know what’s been done.
This book has sections where the order doesn’t matter— dive in wherever you like! The sections are hosted by different characters who will present different kinds of puzzles, so if you have a favorite type, you’ll know where to look. The book begins with Sir Glance-A-Lot, who presents the picture puzzles, followed by the Riddle Green Men, who ask questions of all sorts. Alice in Wanderland will take you through the mazes, The Wordman of Alcatraz is in charge of the word puzzles, and Sherlogic Holmes handles the logic and reasoning section.
Finally, there’s FrankEinstein, who looms over the section with the book’s toughest puzzles. (In the other sections, we haven’t said what’s easy or what’s hard because different people are better at different kinds of puzzles.) Like we said, this is no ordinary book. No ordinary book would make a point of telling you what to do if you get stuck. Novels aren’t known for offering advice to people who can’t follow the story. Atlases don’t say how to find your way home if you get lost, and dictionaries don’t tell you how to look up a word if you can’t already spell it (although they probably should).
So just in case you find yourself stuck along the way, here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Read (or reread) the instructions. Why are some of the boxes different colors? What do the arrows mean? Should I cross off these words as I use them? Read the instructions, and you’ll find out. Sometimes a puzzle will have a bonus message that you won’t find unless you know how to look for it. Other times, two puzzles may look similar to each other but have different rules for solving.
2. You don’t always have to solve everything in the order it’s given. If you get stuck solving from top to bottom or left to right, just jump somewhere else and work your way out from there. Also, some puzzles have two parts (like many in the Riddle Green Men section, which reveal the answer to a riddle when you’re done). If you can solve some—but not all—of the first part, maybe you can use what you know to figure out some or all of the final answer. Then you can use that information to get the parts you skipped over.
3. Stop solving and come back to the puzzle later. If you find yourself trying the same thing over and over again, put the puzzle down. Sometimes all you need to do is come back later and the answer will suddenly pop out at you. (Your brain keeps working on it even though you’re doing other things.)
In case you’re permanently puzzled (or just want to check how you did), the answers are all in the back of the book. There you’ll also find a special foldout Scavenger Hunt that will have you searching cover-to-cover to solve one more super-puzzle, and a tear-out Certificate of Achievement that you can earn by solving the Scavenger Hunt.
As puzzle writers, we think that the best puzzles are not at all like tests. They’re sometimes tricky, often challenging, and always fun. But never ordinary.
