Amazing "Aha!" Puzzles 

Puzzle whiz, Lloyd King, has created more than 300 lateral-thinking, brain-teasing puzzles and collated them in this fun book. King’s puzzles are designed to frustrate and annoy you until a lightbulb moment of clarity brings the solution to the front of your brain. King, himself, warns that the puzzles can become addictive once you start getting the hang of them, and I agree. 

Lateral puzzles like these can encourage creative thinking, improve your ability to solve problems, and develop your imagination, intuition, and self-awareness. According to Edward De Bono, creative and lateral thinking can be taught, but it takes practice. What better way to practice than to have fun?

King's puzzles are very well thought out, and every part of the puzzle presents its clues – from the title to the pictures and the instructions. And don’t forget to read the story clues carefully. Some of the solutions are right there in the wording. The solutions are given at the end of the book and illustrated where necessary. 

The brainteasers are rated from one to four lightning bolts depending on their difficulty (Easy Rider, Subtle Side-Stepper, Tough Kooky, and Quantum Leaper). This rating is very useful for those solutions that are so obvious you’re tempted to dismiss your first answer and look for something you’ve missed. Understandably with a book containing so many, I did find some of the puzzles and their solutions too obscure to be satisfying. Most of the puzzles, though, will have you chuckling and marvelling at their cleverness. 

In addition King has introduced quirky recurring characters who will have you rolling your eyes at the twists in their names. Cinderspeller is a witch, and her puzzles usually involve spellings or misspellings or the sounds of words. Professor Bunsen-Bernard gets involved in puzzles relating to chemistry equipment. You'll also meet Windlestraw the Wizard, Inspector Gumshoe, Treasure-hunter Nebraska Jones, Artist Damien Picasso, and plenty of sea captains and pirates. 

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles is a genuine “All Ages” book that will be enjoyed by anyone with a little patience to let their mind mull over a brain teaser. This book is great to have around to grab a puzzle every now and then if you’re bored, or for family games evenings with a slight difference. Mute the ads when you watch TV and work on a puzzle instead. You may even find your brain working faster and more creatively with a little practice. 

copyright © Elsa Neal 2006 (Please contact the for permission to reprint this article.)

This review also appears on BellaOnline.