I received an early reviewer copy of this book two years ago, and I never wrote a review because I never gave it a thorough read. However, librarything keeps sending me reminders to review, so I'm giving it a shot anyway, especially since my impressions seem on par with the reviews of others. On receiving it, I discovered it was not what I was anticipating. While I expected interesting logic puzzles and fun game activities, the bulk of the exercises were math or word problems and short riddles. The few I read were pretty basic and did address lateral or synthetic thinking skills. The book is probably better for elementary teachers than individual parents.

I hoped this book would provide games to play with my kids when the wife was gone and I was in charge of entertainment. I only have two children and there are only 8 games for pairs of children, so that was a disappointment, however there are 21 games for any size groups so all was not lost. The age recommendation is 4 and up, but some of the games seemed too advanced for a 4 year-old. For example: take 5 minutes to come up with as a many words as possible whose letters appear in alphabetical order.

The riddles were pretty weak, and I say this as a fan of riddles. Many of them aren't riddles at all but simple math or word problems. Here are two examples. Add up the numbers 1 to 10 , what's the total? A family is driving south and another family is driving the opposite direction, which way is the second family driving?

Still, some of the riddles could be fun with a group of kids having to work it out, so they definitely have value. I can see how this book could be useful in a school setting when there's extra time left over from another activity. As a parent, it's not as useful for my needs. ( )

I received "101 Quick-Thinking Games and Riddles for Children" as my first Early Reviewers Group award and knew as soon as I read it that the material was outside my "expertise". This handy collection provides concise descriptions and instructions for games that will appeal to small groups of children ranging in age from 4 to at least 10 years old. I gave book over to the local elementary school for a couple of weeks, and following is a brief summary of comments from teachers who read the book and tested samples of the material on their students.

The material is very accessible and can be easily incorporated into lesson plans, or used as a filler on short notice. Since the age-range is fairly broad, it would be helpful to include age-appropriate designations for each entry.

Games included in the book are interesting and creative and should keep the attention of most small groups of young children. Each entry includes an icon that quickly classifies the games needs for props and materials. Teachers will generally find that when materials are needed, they are readily available in the classroom.

I can easily envision "101 Quick-Thinking Games and Riddles for Children" as a ready reference in the elementary school library. ( )

This book is more oriented towards elementary school teachers and daycare sitters with majority of the games in it requiring a group of children versus the small handful of activities that ask for a pair. There is nothing in this book for a parent looking for fun, learning games to play with his/her children. Maybe a couple good ideas, but I'd say look somewhere else.

My biggest disappoint was how little a section is devoted to the basic math story problems and knowledge questions which the book claims are "riddles" that was placed at the end of the book. In fact, going through this section and counting, I only counted 3 riddles that were real riddles among the 65 the book gives. In my opinion, the book should be renamed to "101 quick-thinking games + basic math and knowledge questions for children." At least then the title wouldn't be misleading. ( )

This book is full of games and activities to encourage children to use their brains while having fun. It is usefully organized, with the difficulty of the activities increasing throughout the book, so that activities for younger children will be found at the beginning, and those for older (elementary-age) children will be found towards the end. Most of the activities can be done with little or no preparation; those that require special items or props are marked with an icon. The activities in the book are geared for children in small to large groups (group size also indicated with an icon) but most could be adapted to one or two children. The activities, most of which are familiar from other books of this type, for the most part seem like they would be fun and would serve the purpose of exercising critical thinking capabilities. I think this book would be most useful to elementary school teachers and camp counselors; home educators and parents would likely find the book too much geared toward children in groups. The riddles are tacked on to the end like an afterthought; some are more like quiz questions than true riddles ("Paul took a wonderful picture of the sunset. In which direction was he pointing the camera?" "How many planets orbit the sun?"). For teachers and other group leaders, this book might be handy, but not indispensable. Parents should look elsewhere. ( )