Andrea Gilbert

Brightly inviting, Peter and Serhiy Grabarchuk’s Puzzle Box Volume 1 is the sort of book you can leave on a coffee table for guests to pick up and browse, inviting conversation, discussion and fun.

The puzzles are nicely organized with most pages blending easy and hard puzzles, all of different styles—something for everyone on each full-page spread. With bright illustrations it’s easy for the chess-player to flip to the next chess puzzle, while the wordsmith fills in the blanks, the mathematician applies logic to names on a grid, the pattern-matcher folds cubes, and everyone together discusses how to split a shape into identical parts. There are mazes, linkages, odd ones out and more, and every page is a delight. Plus, there’s enough to last all through the year, at which point perhaps you’ll be able to buy volume 2.

Stars indicate levels of difficulty, and answers are given in the back of the book, mostly as clear bright illustrations making them easy to understand. I enjoyed the fact that the answers don’t take up half the book, and I particularly enjoyed the “puzzle types” listing on the back page, allowing more determined browsers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Puzzle Box is inviting, intriguing, social and fun. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was given a copy and it’s much enjoyed, sitting on my coffee table.… (meer)