Puzzlebook: 103 Puzzle Quizzes, by the Grabarchuk Family

The 4th book in the Puzzlebook series is full of all new puzzles for all skill levels.  103 full color puzzles that are designed to be interactive on your Kindle or Kindle application make for hours of family fun.  As with other books in this series, the puzzles are grouped by skill set, getting progressively harder as you continue through the book.  By clicking on the correct answer to each puzzle, you see the solution page and can continue to the next puzzle.

Having become familiar with the Puzzlebook series produced by the Grabarchuk family, I have to say I think this is my favorite Puzzlebook so far.  I really thought that the puzzles included in this book were some of the best designed ones they have created.  I felt like there was a really good variety in terms of types of puzzles.  It never felt like it was repetitiousness, and there were new types of puzzles I had not seen in any of their previous books.

The more I become familiar with these interactive books, they better I become at navigating them.  At the beginning of the book on the table of contents page, there is an indication on the settings suggested for optimal viewing.  It is important that readers pay attention to this, and change their settings accordingly, so that the puzzle and answer selections are correctly displayed.  Once I made sure my settings were correct, I had no trouble navigating through the book.

I believe that many puzzle enthusiasts will enjoy this book.  Once you get used to the nature of these interactive puzzlebooks, they can become quite addictive!

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

Puzzlebook Trilogy, by the Grabarchuk Family

Do you like logic puzzles?  Want to find an interactive ebook to use with your kids?  Going on a long trip with only your iphone to entertain you?  Well, if you answered yes to these questions, this trilogy is probably going to be perfect for you.  This interactive book contains over 300 puzzles at various levels of difficulty.

My husband in a big puzzle person; often we pore over game magazines when on trips or on rainy weekends.  He is the perfect demographic for there books.  I am not as much of a puzzle person, but I still enjoyed these puzzles.  The trilogy is well designed, with the puzzles being in rich color.  That means this book is probably best on a kindle Fire, computer, or iPhone/iPad.  These puzzles would not be as fun without the color.  I chose to use my iPhone for this, since using the computer means I have to adjust my settings to make sure the pages display correctly.  

All in all, this delivers a good interactive experience.  The trilogy is broken down into the individual volumes, with each new volume starting with a pictoral table of contents of sorts.  The only thing that was difficult on the iPhone is that, even with the typeface at its lowest setting, some of the puzzle answer selections are at the bottom of the page, and it overlapped with the menu of the kindle application; similarly, I occasionally saw the next puzzle's solution as opposed to returning to the puzzle I had just solved, because the selection buttons overlapped with the application menu area.  

My advice for people purchasing this trilogy is to take your time going through it.  For the purposes of the review, I went from start to finish in one sitting, and found that the puzzles can feel a bit repetitive if you do that, stealing some of the fun from the process.  Savor this trilogy over a week or so, and I think it will increase your enjoyment.

I received a review copy of this book courtesy of the author.

 

Puzzlebook: 20 Easter Puzzle Quizzes, by the Grabarchuk Family

This Kindle book is filled with interactive color puzzles specifically designed for the Easter season.  Fully interactive, selecting the correct answer will take you to the solution page, while the wrong answer will send you to a page prompting you to try again.  Puzzles start off easy and increase in difficulty as the book progresses.

This was a much different kind of book for me to review.  While my husband is the real puzzle lover in the family, I enjoy a good puzzle or trial of logic now and then, so I thought this would be a good book to try.  This was my first encounter with an interactive Kindle book.  Since I do not have a Kindle Fire, and my Kindle is in black and white, I first tried the book on my Kindle for PC.  It was really fun, until I encountered a technical issue.  Due to the text per line and text size setting on my application, I encountered a few puzzles where the answer selection choices were spread across two pages, and the ones on the second page did not respond to clicking.  This is easily rectified by switching to a smaller font size, so that all answers appear on the same page.  The parameters for best viewing are listing at the end of the table of contents, so be sure you pay attention and set the text accordingly!  I also tried the book in my iPhone Kindle application, and it worked perfectly.

Technical parameters aside, I really enjoyed this book.  The puzzles were unique, quite different from the same old same old you find in many puzzle books.  Some were easy, some I found a little challenging.  Which is exactly what the book promises.  This would be a perfect ebook to give as a gift to a game lover, or an older child who has outgrown an Easter basket.

This was my first encounter with an interactive Kindle book, and I must say I found it really intriguing.  In a world where everything is becoming more tech savvy and interactive, I found this to be a cool alternative to standard paper and pencil puzzles.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.