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Various
Michael O’Mara
Books
16 March 2017/ ISBN 9781782437208
Non-Fiction/Puzzles
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
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If
you enjoy coloring and solving puzzles, then here is a whole
book full of activities that combine the two. Join the dots,
solve han-jie puzzles, find the way out of some super challenging
mazes, color by numbers in two new ways and enjoy some intricate
pattern coloring.
Back when coloring was new, I bought a French magazine that
combined coloring with puzzles and since then I have been looking
for something like that for the English-speaking market. Gradually
a few such books have started to trickle in, and this is the
best one I have seen yet. What makes it so good? To start with,
the excellent quality of the bright white paper, which is more
like thin card. Designs are only printed on one side and have
a margin around then so you don’t have to color into the
spine. Some pages have simple black line frames, others areas
of white space, and although there are no perforated lines,
cutting out a picture to frame is not difficult. There are five
of each type of picture with answers at the back and a brief
description of how to solve each type of puzzle. For those new
to han-jie these are not the easiest puzzles to start, and despite
the colorful nature of the book, they are not the colored variety.
The dot to dot pictures have colored groups of dots and are
small but visible for anybody with good sight and a good light.
These are also needed for the Color Quest and Colortronic puzzles,
which are both variations on color by numbers. If you have both
light and sight, the results are excellent and you do have the
benefit of the pale gray numbers and lines barely being visible
afterwards. The straight coloring patterns have highly evident
black lines and, like the mazes (most intricate I have ever
seen), should provide hours of absorbing fun, just like the
rest of this book. Another reason for liking it is the large
format (14½“ x 10½“), my own personal
favorite size for coloring and other activity books. To sum
up, this is a wonderfully enjoyable book which probably ought
to be available on prescription for both relaxation and a brain
workout in one. I do hope it will be the first in a series and
that I don’t have to wait too long for the next one. Very
highly recommended.
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