Amazon.com (ISBN 0806997672, Paperback)

"Jim and Joe were fighting, so their mother punished them by making them stand on the same sheet of newspaper ... in such a way that neither boy could touch the other. How?" (The answer's in the last paragraph of this review.)

Scratching your head? Lateral thinking puzzles are designed to make you do just that--and wrack your brain for the solutions to these inventive little gems. While the book can be read alone, the puzzles are best when played as a game with a group of friends: one person reads the scenario aloud, and the others try to deduce the answer by asking "yes" or "no" questions. "Is it an exceptionally large sheet of newspaper?" (no), "can the boys see each other?" (no). And while most of the puzzles are fictional, some of the most confounding stumpers are taken from real life. (Can you guess why the buttons on men's clothes are on the right but women's are on the left?)

Perplexing Lateral Thinking Puzzles, Paul Sloane's seventh book in the series, is as fresh and clever as the first, and is perfect for anyone who enjoys solving mysteries as much as they enjoy reading them.

(Did you figure out that Jim and Joe are on either side of a closed door, with the newspaper slid underneath? Then get ready to take on more than 100 other mind-melters in this entertaining volume.) --Matthew Baldwin