Author(s): David Astle ISBN: 9781760113575 Binding: Paperback Published: 2015-12-01 How to be a champion word puzzler in 20 quick bites! Packed with word puzzles, tongue twisters and brain teasers, this book will give readers all the ingredients they need to solve cryptic crosswords. Kids of a certain age become obsessed with crossword puzzles: what are they? how do they work? when can I solve one all on my own? Word wizard David Astle has come up with a sneaky way to introduce children to the mechanics of cryptic crossword puzzles, by taking them through different kinds of wordplay - anagrams, pangrams, spoonerisms, tongue-twisters, homophones - before presenting them with crossword puzzles to solve using everything learnt so far. 'DA' puns and word plays abound, making this the word nerd's bible of wordy trickery and puzzling.
A kid-friendly guide to becoming a wordsmith, covering everything from homophones to palindromes and pretty much everything in between.
This book will give you at least some of the skills required to prove you’re the smartest attendee at your next dinner party, even if it is aimed at kids. The book is divided into sections, each dealing with a different peculiarity of the English language, for your learning pleasure. The sections also include some activities and mini-puzzles to get your brain working as you read. This is definitely not suited for reading aloud, and for the section on homophones, even reading it in your head to yourself comes with a severe risk of brain implosion. I would recommend this one as the type of book you dip into when the fancy takes you because I found that trying to read the sections consecutively nearly brought on word-related psychosis. On the plus side, when Letters and Numbers comes back to our screens (come on SBS!) I will now have some extra fact-based barbed prongs in my arsenal, instead of just an inflated sense of my own linguistic expertise.
I love David Astle! His love for words and the games you can play with them make for an excellent read!
I have to say that while he explains the ins and outs of cryptic crosswords clearly and provides lots of examples I fell short at the final Wordburger and had to look at the answer in the back of the book.
Still it was heaps of fun getting there so I can't recommend this book enough! :)