Molly's Magic Carpet

Usborne Young Puzzle Adventures

by Emma Fischel, Teri Gower (Illustrator), Maria Wheatly (Illustrator)

By solving a series of puzzles the reader can help Molly as she sets out on an adventure to help her friend the magic carpet

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1996

About the author

Emma Fischel grew up in the country, the middle of five children, and had a happy, muddy childhood. She now lives in London and has three nearly grown-up children of her own – two boys and one girl, all very tall, and extremely useful at changing light bulbs she can’t reach. Emma writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her books have been published by Bloomsbury, Usborne, Watts, and others.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 2 out of 5]

(The final story in the Young Puzzle Adventure Stories omnibus)

Knocking a star off for the following reason:

"All the doors and windows are barred and bolted." (pg. 85)
"Found it!", shrieked Molly. "Let's go!" Leaping on to the carpet, they soared out of the window. (pg. 92)

There was no discussion about the removal of bars or unbolting. Sloppy.

Overall, another tedious and thin plotline, and nothing very challenging. There's a chance to spot the real magician, so you could carry forward a mental image of the former magician - the trouble is, we already had a puzzle of spotting all the ways the magician's appearance had changed into a new form. I guess at some point he spontaneously reverted to his original form, then. If you didn't happen to remember what he looked like from the outset, there's a rhyming riddle to work out which one he is. If the young puzzler remembered, however, you are down a puzzle.

We are finding these a bit too easy, though. If you're already solving the Puzzle Adventure series, for example Usborne The Missing Unicorn., don't bother stepping backwards into these ones.

[Ashton]

I think this book is a very cute book, because of the adventures that Molly went on. This story had a lot of interactive parts that you can use in the classroom. Every question that it asks, the teacher can stop and ask the students where something is or what ever the question may be. The adventures she went on is something that I think the children can relate to with their imagination as well. I really enjoyed this book and I think kids would too.