THE JOY OF THINKING

Debut author Dee presents a series of challenging word problems for preteen kids.

Mannie, an anthropomorphic fox, teams up with his friends—an owl called Thinker O and a bee dubbed Thinker B—for a brain-teasing journey through Digitland, a friendly forest full of word problems meant to instill mathematical and scientific thinking skills in young learners. However, readers shouldn’t let the bright colors and charming, uncredited illustrations make them think that these exercises are a walk in the park; indeed, these puzzles are difficult. The basic data set used to solve the increasingly complex word problems centers on the numbers zero through nine. Various word and number games are presented in formats that range from true/false statements to bar graphs and beyond. Some of the problems seem overly convoluted: “Thinker O: Why do you think that Mannie chose the number zero for my observation that the digit 4 has the same number of letters in its spelling as its value in ones?” However, with time and patience, the rules do begin to make sense. The first half of the book helpfully acts as a type of warm-up, but the challenges kick in with the introduction of “Mannie’s Numbers,” a system in which certain letters are given values that are negative, positive, or zero. These form the basis for the latter half of the book, in which “Mannie’s Challenges” appear. However, the discrete “Helpful Hints” section doesn’t show up until just before these challenges start—an odd choice considering that the hints would have been extremely helpful at the book’s beginning. The book thoughtfully urges readers to cut out handy reference charts at the back of the book, which will prevent readers from having to flip back and forth. Anyone younger than 10 or so will likely find this book an exercise in frustration due to the puzzles’ complexity, but those who love taking on a tough challenge will find plenty to keep them interested.

A mind-bending puzzle book that will strongly engage word-problem fans.