Leonardo's Mirror & Other Puzzles

If you are a puzzle-hound, you will love this book. Not only are the puzzles genuine stumpers, but the colors used are so bright and distinct that the pages would keep the attention of an infant as you turned the pages. The puzzles in this book cover a broad area; there is no real theme to their basis. From the title, some of the puzzles are from the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, the most talented person who ever lived. Several deal with the area of a shape, others with traversing a figure and there is even one about a bike with square wheels. The diversity of the puzzles is one of the most attractive features of this book, as you never know what the next one will be. Puzzles are good, clean and frustrating fun, the best are in the Goldilocks category, not too hard, not too easy. That is the way to describe these puzzles and if they are not just right for you, you can always do a little (Bo) Peep at the answer in the back.

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was fascinated with the idea of dissecting curved figures and transforming them into squares? So says Ivan Moscovich, the designer of these puzzles and games which provide a learning experience that he calls "recreational mathematics." This collection of puzzles and games contains a tribute to Da Vinci in the form of mirror writing and a dissection puzzle that is quite difficult to solve. Also included are puzzles based on lines, parabolas, curves, and hexagons. Interspersed among the puzzles in this collection are fascinating facts about such things as the Kinemat art drawing machine, Fibonacci numbers, and the best way to pack circles. The answer pages provide not only solutions, but also explanations for the answers that present simple principles of mathematics. These puzzles are not just challenging and educational, but they are a visual treat as well, since each puzzle has one or more colorful and esthetically pleasing illustrations. Some of these puzzles are real mind benders, but that makes discovering the solution all the more rewarding. Happy puzzling! Eileen Rieback