One-Minute Mysteries and Brain Teasers: Good Clean Puzzles for Kids of All Ages

by Sandy Silverthorne, John Warner

Readers of all ages will be astonished and stumped by these interactive mysteries. In brief paragraphs and black-and-white illustrations, award-winning author Sandy Silverthorne and John Warner present 100 puzzles, each with a logical "aha" answer...that may require thinking outside the box. Clues and answers are included in separate sections. Rex is surprised when the phone rings. He answers it and writes down a message. He doesn't know the person who called or the person being called. He will never meet them. What is going on?   Rex was working He was in a public place It wasn't his personal phone   Rex works for the phone company. He'd just finished repairing a pay phone and it rang. The caller explained her friend was supposed to be there. Rex wrote down the message and left it for the friend to find.   Hours of wholesome entertainment is practically guaranteed!

Genres: Mystery, Puzzles

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

I’ve loved drawing all my life but I started doing it as a profession kind of by accident. I grew up in Southern California and went to San Diego State University. During the summers I worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios, what a great job! And I met some really good friends while I was there. I was an actor in Los Angeles for a while doing plays, some TV and a few commercials. I was even on some soap operas. It was during this time that I met my awesome wife Vicki in Newport Beach. After we got married we moved to the northwest. We love it here. We have a beautiful daughter, Christie and a black and white Rescue cat- Gracie.

When we moved, I couldn’t find a full time job so I started drawing for ads and TV and clients around town. Then God got me hooked up with Harvest House publishers and my writing and illustrating career took off. Since then I’ve gotten to work with some really great people like Focus on the Family, World Vision, The Los Angeles Times, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Charlotte Hornets.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:11- “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.”

I know that’s been true for me and I know it’ll be true for you too. I hope you enjoy this site and learn some stuff from it. We’ll keep adding new features all the time so make sure you keep coming back and visiting.

Things I love: summer, ice cream, hamburgers, drawing, Duck football and basketball, working on books, speaking to groups of kids

Things I don’t love: broccoli, getting up early, committees

Reviews

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several of the puzzles are outdated, making the solutions unrealistic, and more than once I was frustrated that the solution required adding details completely off the story chart. Other than that, it was fun (and maddening) trying to think outside the script for possible solutions. I got only a handful of solutions right. I might have done better if I gave myself more time to ponder each challenge.

[Mediaman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasted my money on these old riddle-type books and they are worthless. Dumb "mysteries" that aren't mysteries at all, solutions that come out of nowhere. No clues. You'll never guess most of them. I bought these for kids age 7 to 13 and they hated them, begged to stop doing them. I'm not sure how these got published, they're so bad. Instead get the 30-second Mysteries by Bob Moog, which are fun, intelligent, give clues, and kids love them.

[Mark Meiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

All of these have 15 possible explanations, and the one the authors have in mind is usually the 7th dumbest.

[Bryan Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ones, some bad ones. Great for road trips and quick mental break activities with your mates.

[Westcoast_girl · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are great little puzzles for kids.
Why my rating is so low is because of the answers! The stories and clues are set up in an enticing way that causes a slew of responses to come. But it always seemed that the ones that the kids came up with were better than the real answer. All the solutions were outlandish and seemingly impossible to pinpoint.
Sure, read this book, but consider making up your own solutions beforehand.