This is a quizzing book for the young. The kind that any parent would immediately regret reading at bed-time as their children would get wound up, wanting to know what Binturongs really do smell of rather than, you know, going to sleep. The title, as given to me by the Susie of the title, was 'Quizzard Quizzing with Susie' which, while pleasing, did not inspire anything for the front cover. Except a picture of Susie, playing Quizzard.
If you are wondering what 'Quizzard' is, here is a picture from board game geek:
My Gran found our copy at a jumble sale, gave it to us, then reaped the whirlwind. It is quizzing, with buzzers. Genius. The buzzers make it all the more competitive. And dangerous. Except, to add to the hilarity, the questions are a good thirty years out of date. Half of them are now wrong. However, this has never stopped us.
This book may have been requested, but it does represent one of my favourite all time groups of book:
The PUZZLE BOOK.
I love them. Seriously. I always have. There's something so entertaining about them, and yet there's still a story going on, in and amongst the code breakers and mazes. I was given several of the Usborne Young Puzzles when I was little, but the ones I really liked and rediscovered this summer, having given two of them to my twenty-five year old brother, were the Agent Arthur books. We spent a week in a caravan in Yorkshire not reading our worthy grown-up books but, in fact, reading about Agent Arthur and solving his way across an island and through the desert. It's amazing how hard they make some of the puzzles, given that they're designed for children. In fact, it's slightly embarrassing. However, this does not dissuade me from wanting to write my own. If not Mount Quizzard, there's another one planned. It may turn up sometime before March. Otherwise, it may become a longer term project.
Have a puzzling good weekend adventurers.
Over and out.
I don't actually know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteFirst, this is awesome. Secondly, I LOVED Usborne Puzzle Books...in fact I rediscovered them myself a few summers ago but they got put in a box in the garage when my parents re=decorated my room. I shall have to seek them out once again. My favourite was "The Intergalactic Bus Trip" because it had funky aliens in it.
Thirdly, Quizzard = genius. Although I am in awe of the link to Usbourne Puzzle Books, it doesn't quite capture the competitive edge of quizzard that makes it oh so very enjoyable. Not to mention the distinct lack of allusion to the violence and/or threatening vocalisations that usually accompany Quizzard-ing in the picture. However, I will allow this as it is a kids book.
Perhaps, like J.K. "money-bags" Rowling, you could bring out an "adult" version of the front cover and integrate the violence and hostility into that instead.
I'm not sure that here is the place to air my views on 'adult' puzzle books. Suffice it to say, I can't look at Agent Arthur in the same way since a conversation on the same subject in the summer.
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