National Puzzle Month

January is "Puzzle Month" with January 29th being National Puzzle Day. Puzzles offer many educational benefits such as...
-helping children see parts to a whole (like with words)
-developing spatial awareness
-improving problem solving skills
-eye-hand coordination
-coming in different levels
-plain ol' fun

In honor of "Puzzle Month," GUWB would like to feature several of our "puzzling books." These books allow your child to use "puzzle strategies" while reading. Check them out!

The Seed (0-2 age group)
Bunny's Noisy Book by Margaret Wise Brown
We follow Bunny from the day’s beginning to its end. As the day goes on, sounds are heard and the reader is encouraged to guess what sounds are and how they came to be. Through colorful illustrations, Lisa McCue takes us on another journey as we look to find “McCue” hidden thirteen times in this story.

The Sprout and Sapling (3-4 and 5-8 age group)
I Spy Mystery: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo
Using poetry and rhyme, Jean Marzollo invites children to search for hidden objects in photographs. Some objects are easier to find than others so it’s a wonderful way to increase a child’s “stamina” with reading.

The Young Tree (9-12 age group)
The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman
Twelve-year old Gil Goodson is ready to join the Gollywhopper Games. After months of being in the shadows of his father being wrongly accused of embezzling money from the Golly Toy and Game Company, the time has come to set things straight. It’s the 50th anniversary of the company and Gil thinks that if he can win the grand prize his family will be able to move out of town and be rid of “The Incident” and start fresh. Through challenging puzzles and riddles, tricky trivia, and crazy stunts, he competes against thousands of other kids to try and win. Gil has planned, studied, and is ready for the big day. Not only will it take the knowledge he has of the Golly Toy Company to win, teamwork will play a key role to his success. Unexpected twists and turns will be present throughout this novel. Get your thinking caps on and get ready to solve some puzzles with Gil!

Also take time to check out the puzzling book ideas at The Miss Rumphius Effect. You may even want to try these puzzling sites from Grandmother Wren. She can help you make your own set of tangrams to really get the brain thinking!

Enjoy getting "puzzled" with books from GUWB!
Happy reading-
The GUWB Team