A smart, entertaining children’s activity book.
Sudoku wizard Bloom introduces the complicated game to children in this easy-to-use guide.
In theory, Sudoku is a remarkably elementary game. But its logic can leave many first-time players–children and adults alike–a little stumped. Bloom offers this easy how-to guide for children, which also features special instructions on how adults can better teach the game to young ones. The author starts simply–after a quick history of Sudoku, he introduces the key formatting and terminology associated with the game. Though it may seem unnecessary to explain columns and rows, even the most puzzle-obsessed adult will find it refreshing to see the board broken down so straightforwardly, as when he demonstrates that all Sudoku boards begin with four giant squares and then are subdivided. Bloom encourages readers to fill the obvious numbers into rows or columns to demonstrate the overall rules of the game on a small scale. After a few such exercises, the author builds up to actual Sudoku boards, giving kids the opportunity to try their hand at games labeled “Quick and Easy,” “Medium” and “Challenging.” Of course, even at their most difficult, these puzzles are rather rudimentary, but that’s OK. He points out that the book was designed around the curricula of first, second and third grade–a clever and direct strategy. With almost 200 puzzles and lessons, the book will keep kids busy without boring them, and gives just enough of the game to keep them wanting more. Brilliant in how it relates to its audience, Sudokids.com is ideal for any child who wants to learn how to solve one of America’s most popular puzzles.
A smart, entertaining children’s activity book.Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2008
ISBN: 978-0620405935
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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