RIDDLE ROAD: Puzzles in Poems and Pictures

Here is a brand new collection of twenty-six puzzles to tease and tantalize young riddle lovers everywhere. With both verbal and pictorial hints to make the guessing more fun, the answers to these riddles range from pillows and pincushions to hot dogs and ladybugs. Can you guess who is speaking in this riddle? I eat words whereverI find them but am no wiser.Keep your books under lock and keyor they'll be devoured by me! If you can't guess the answer, look inside the book at the picture on page 13 for more clues. In their sequel to With One White Wing: Puzzles in Poems and Pictures, award-winners Elizabeth Spires and Erik Blegvad have once again seamlessly blended words and images to creat a delightful assortment of riddles to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Kindergarten-Grade 4-Students will enjoy lingering over both the words and the pictures in this attractive book. What kind of dog hangs out at ballparks and barbecues? What lives in a glass house and should be worth a lot of money but is not? The answers can be found in this entertaining collection of 26 riddles about alarm clocks, goldfish, eating utensils, shoes, and other commonplace things. The poems have just enough depth to require a little thought to figure out. Blegvad's watercolor illustrations provide clever clues but do not necessarily give away the answer. A riddle about a "...horse/swimming in the sea" is accompanied by a handsome picture of horses and children frolicking at the beach. Closer inspection reveals the solution in a sea horse outlined in the clouds. As in Myra Cohn Livingston's My Head Is Red (Holiday, 1990; o.p.), the answer to each riddle is listed upside down on the bottom of the page. This sequel to the well-received With One White Wing (McElderry, 1995) will be a fine complement to any poetry shelf.
Jackie Hechtkopf, University of Maryland, College Park
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this winsome companion to With One White Wing, Spires and Blegvad again combine their considerable talents for 26 verbal and visual puzzles. In simple, gracefully delineated verse, some of it rhyming, some not, Spires crafts a collection of imaginative riddles whose answers lie well within the grasp of youngsters just beginning to read. Augmenting the wordplay, Blegvad tucks clever clues into his exquisite watercolors, many of which are so meticulously executed that they resemble etchings. A woman's red umbrella with black spots, for instance, telegraphs the answer to "Stop telling me/ my house is on fire,/ my children gone!/ Is that any way/ to treat a lady?/ I'll fly away! I will!" The brainteasers here will intrigue and stimulate young minds, and answers appear upside down at the bottom of each page. Ages 6-10. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Offering brain-teasers for the younger set, Spires and Blegvad follow up With One White Wing (1995) with 26 charming riddles. Whether reading or listening, children will find cluessome large and clear, some hiddenin the lively illustrations as well as in the text; the solution always appears at the bottom of the page, upside down. The scopefrom obvious to difficultwill satisfy a wide range of children, although a few riddles presume background knowledge that very young children may not have. Spires repeats words and phrases often, allowing readers the chance to become familiar with new words and spelling patterns. The game-like quality of the book demands attention to meaning, however, and helps children have fun actively reading not only words but picture as they guess solutions to the riddles. An artful and accessible addition to the beginning reader domain. (Poetry. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.