Happy book birthday to BEASTLY PUZZLES: A BRAIN-BOGGLING ANIMAL GUESSING GAME by Rachel Poliquin and illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler, out today from Kids Can Press!
“Definitely bamboozling–but in a good way, as exercises in unconventional logic.” ―Kirkus Reviews
This book asks children: If you’re given a list of features and characteristics, can you guess which animal they make? This might seem easy enough. But solving the puzzles in this book is deviously, outrageously, almost impossibly tricky! Though the thirteen animals included are easily recognizable–such as polar bear, snail, ostrich, pufferfish–the clues are unexpected. For example: 3 billiard balls, dinosaur feet and five feather dusters. And to further complicate matters, the clues are presented in scenarios unrelated to the animals–the ostrich is composed of items in a gentlemen’s den and the pufferfish clues are items in a spy submarine. Once readers make a guess (or if they get stumped!), they can open the gatefold to reveal the animal, with each clue explained and lots of additional fascinating facts.
Rachel Poliquin is a writer and curator with a background in visual arts, cultural history and natural history. She is also the author of the critically-acclaimed Superpower Field Guides series for children, including BEAVERS (2018) and MOLES (2019). Rachel lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.