More Stories to Solve: Fifteen Folktales from Around the World

by George Shannon (Compiler), Peter Sís (Illustrator)

From the author/illustrator team behind Stories to Solve, here are eleven more twisty mysteries for tweens who like to puzzle it out.  A great choice for emerging readers who are ready for chapter books and like puzzles, brain-twisters, and more. 

How did they do it?  How did a single firefly win a fight against one hundred apes? How did the priest catch a thief with a rooster? How did a student outwit the king? How did a frog escape from the pitcher of cream? These and more tantalizing, brain-teasing mysteries are waiting in the pages of this book.

Genres: Childrens, Mystery, Short Stories, Folk Tales, Middle Grade, Folklore, Fiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

George Shannon is a popular storyteller and former children's librarian whose many notable picture books include Tomorrow's Alphabet, Lizard's Guest, and White Is for Blueberry. Tippy-Toe Chick, Go!, illustrated by Laura Dronzek, was named a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book. George Shannon lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorta like brainteasers, sorta like Encyclopedia Brown. But multicultural, with a good author's note about sources. I will look for more in the 'series.' And do any of you know any other good mini-mystery books? I should make a Listopia....

The only reason I rounded down from 3.5 stars is because I cannot stand Peter Sis's illustration work.

[J. Boo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories to Solve was wonderful, so I was quite looking forward to George Shannon's second collection of folk tales with clever solutions, solutions that you are supposed to be able to figure out yourself, then turn the page to see if you got it right. Aesop's tale of the "Crow and the Pitcher" is a good example of the type Shannon uses - here's the guts of the story, now turn the page to see how the crow got her water!

However, "More Stories to Solve" wasn't nearly as good as the first collection. More confusingly written, several stories had solutions that were too similar, and... I hate to say it, but there seemed to be an overly strained effort to go multi-cultural. For example, one of the tales is a variant of the Grimm Brothers' "The Peasant's Clever Daughter" from Mexico (*), except with a worse ending, and skipping the middle section that would have offered another clever series of tasks whose solutions could be guessed. (The "Peasant's Clever Daughter" is the one where she has to meet the king "neither naked nor clothed, neither walking nor riding, neither on the road nor off it", and I leave it to you to guess how she managed.)

There's plenty of good riddle tales he could have used from all over the world; I don't think there's a need to substitute something not as good in order to avoid the Grimms.

2.4/5. Might've been higher if I was not so disappointed.

(*) Or Portugal? Somewhere in South America? Review is from memory.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

so I think this is short stories for anyone but it's probably written for 8-12 yr olds. I admit did not have most of the stories solved by me, but lucky there was the "how was it done" page for those of us who needed some answers.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short story riddles for children but even adults can have fun with this. A great activity to do with your child is even better. Read perhaps 1 a day with you kid and try to figure each one out. Some are logical, others are just plain silly. Either way you will have fun trying to figure them out.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories that make you think. I read a short story, solve the puzzle and then feel clever, or my children feel clever with themselves.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this one with the family. Surprised that I actually figured out a few if them. Some were a little on the outlandish side, but still fun.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has fifteen riddles for readers to solve. They need to use their background knowledge and the information in the story to come up with the answer. Sometimes you have to think outside the box to solve a riddle. How can an animal throw a spear in the air and count to ten before it comes back down? How can a firefly beat an ape in a fight? Can a frog make it out of a tub of cream when he can’t reach the bottom? This is a fun way to get students excited about inferencing and creatively coming up with solutions by listening carefully and looking at different approaches to solving these puzzles.


Fourth-grade teachers can use this book to work on inferencing using the Common Core State Standard RL.4.1 which states that students will refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun way to spend time with your family or to kick off your homeschool day.

We've read these books as family evening read-a-louds and also added to our homeschool morning basket as a way to kick start our homeschool day. It always grabs everyone's attention and is a lot of fun.

This book contains clever stories to solve from throughout the world.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to read the first one!
These stories are perfect for kids and bedtime story telling!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several of these short (2-3 page) stories would be great to tie into makerspace centers. Read the story and have kids try to figure out the solution using physical objects.

[Lidik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read, took me about five minutes. If I was starting a library for kids I'd include this one. But that's just my taste....

[Julie Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book aloud every year as an "opener" of sorts for my weekly introduction to logic class. It's a fun and clever way to get to the students thinking a bit more critically.

[Rachel McDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, I love how their was only one answer, my favorite was #10 A Last Request.🙂

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are some interesting short riddles that ask the reader to solve the puzzle before learning how the puzzle was solved. Good brain teasers.

[David Tybor · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids - 8, 6, and 6 - loved this great little book of brainteasers. Get it from your library!

[Caitlin W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you like outsmarting your opponents? This is a collection of short stories and riddles from around the world that display the cleverness of the characters within. Each short story or riddle ends on a page with a question, asking the reader to try to guess how the hero outsmarted everyone and attained victory. The solution is on the following page, so the reader can take as much time as he or she needs to try to work through the problem, or just immediately read the solution if he or she can't take the suspense. Each short story is accompanied by several black and white illustrations surrounding the text and decorating the borders of the pages. The stories are from all around the world and various time periods. At the end of the book are notes, giving some history for each folk tale and its origin. There are stories from Mexico, Burma, the Philippines, and Ethiopia, to name a few. Recommended for grades 2-4.

[Ciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially liked the multicultural-ness of this book; from East to West, children are able to learn about foreign cultures (merchants, pilgrimages, etc.) and traditions (hanging, riding donkeys, etc.) and even foreign names (Akbar, Nasrudin, etc). The text teaches children about the importances of being clever and how to use critical thinking skills. Similar to Amelia Bedelia, the clever man (in each context) does things correctly… just a little out of context. This book encourages children to pause and think for a moment; indeed, they cannot know the answer to the riddle until they flip the page. I imagine some parents/teachers might be hesitant to read this book to their children, for there are references to some “dark” events (hanging, animal-killing, etc.).

[Fred Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a coworker because of my penchant for telling funny stories and riddles. Honestly, I dish it out more easily than I take it (I hate to feel dumb!) but these were pretty fun. The ones that I missed didn't (for the most part) make me feel very dumb because I thought the "answers" were just kind of silly.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for read-alouds and illustrated by peter Sis.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love these short story/riddles...now if I ever come across one of them on my travels I will know how to answer.

[Ruth]

Not as great as the first collection of folktales. I was disappointed.

[Mikanchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

大人でも楽しい。

ヒントをあげたらわかりやすいよ。

[Thomas Andrikus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am starting to get more and more enchanted by these riddle-folktales~

My favourite one from this book is the folktale No.8: "Never Seen, Never Heard" which relates to Aesop of Babylon.

[The Styling Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really like both of these books because they are quick, entertaining and good brain teasers.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought these books were absolute genius.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, along with it's previous counterpart, is extraordinary. The illustrations complement the book, and are subtle but not overbearing. I loved the riddles, they were clever and fun to try to solve. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Encyclopedia Brown or other quick-solve mysteries. The cool thing about this book, though, was that it was all folk-tale- based.