Tangram: The Ancient Chinese Shapes Game

In the current Digital Age, the world can be explained as a sequence of 1s and 0s. Simplification must be reassuring, otherwise why would some silly ad by the Ad Council tell us that the human body is 70% water? In geometry even the most complex shapes are said to be functions of circles, squares and triangles. Not so according to the Chinese, inventors of gun powder, kung fu and qi qong, who have their own way of unraveling the rich tapestry of life into simpler elements. With the tangram, which surfaced about 200 to 300 years ago, all shapes or "silhouettes" - 1,600 of which are presented in this book and "game" - are made of seven pieces: five triangles, a square, and a rhomboid. Following the examples in the book, the "player" will be able to arrange them not only into geometric designs, but also into images of plants, animals, humans, and maybe even your late Aunt Nettie. At first glance "playing tangram" may look like an easy pastime for children from age 6. However, "reading," that is properly interpreting and then building the shapes actually takes a lot of patience. Tangram is an ideal solitary activity for adults marooned on a rainy day. Exercising the mind and solving the puzzles is guaranteed to keep you sharp and promises to prevent old Mr. Altzheimer from visiting too early. This game provides excellent training for eye-brain coordination, and in Europe close to one million tangram books have been sold in the past two decades. One word of caution though: this game is highly addictive. Should you decide that this is the perfect gift for a child, consult with its parents or legal guardians first. And remember, when it comes down to it, we are all just the visible manifestations of zeros and ones - with a lot of H2O thrown in.

I had been on the lookout for some sort of "game" that would help me work on and re-develop better spatial and visual memory skills among other things. I had had a serious head injury in a car accident in 1979, and suffered some "difficulties" as a result. Rehabilitation with a cognitive psychologist at U.of I. in Chicago, IL, started Oct.2002, made me "aware" of the potential for tracing new neural pathways doing work such as with the tangrams. I found the book absolutely marvelous. It has the solutions, which were VERY HELPFUL, and key to my buying the set, and it was PORTABLE, something important for someone who takes buses a lot like I do. I found the history and inmense variety of puzzles really interesting and quite challenging for me. I am tremendously grateful to the authors for having published such a book, for a)including the ANSWERS, b) including diagrams which show very clearly how all of them form one piece, and for the tremendous number of different puzzles. The set has proved to be a "boost" in helping my brain re-learn and re-develop the skills somewhat "damaged" in the car accident. An excellent, excellent buy!!!

This game is wonderful. I skipped the philosophy in the book and got straight to the puzzles. Several shaped pieces have to be formed into the solid shape they give you on the page. We go back and do some of the puzzles over and over again because there are SO MANY (like several hundred) puzzles to start with that you never get it mastered. My husband thoroughly enjoyed the book, too. Great gift for the engineer or other visual puzzle person.

The TangramBook by Joost Elffers shows you the logic of the visual language and the way you can think without words. Best used before the age of 11 but its magic works at all ages.