Lately I am often approached by unfamiliar ten-year-olds who have a singular purpose. I recognize their expression every time; it begins with a friendly smile, followed by a look of cunning, then a question: “Can I tell you a riddle?”
“Okay, what’s your riddle?” I reply.
And out comes the challenge: “What has four eyes but cannot see?” or “What has a mouth but doesn’t eat, a bed but doesn’t sleep, and runs but never walks?” Or perhaps it’s this one: “What does the poor have, the rich lack, and if you eat it you’ll die?”
It all began during my recent book tour. At the first school event, I threw in a few riddles because there are riddles in my novel. I really didn’t expect much of a reaction, but the enthusiasm from students was obvious. Kids love riddles.
Faced with this eureka moment, I suggested a riddle-making session, not expecting it to last longer then ten minutes. My first group of twenty-four students spent a solid hour working on them.
Riddles are playful and funny as we all know, but composing them is hard work. Try thinking of words with double meanings, or rhyming words then compose your clue question. It’s a challenging mental exercise.
It began to occur to me that riddles might be a rather potent reading and writing tool.
The Ancient Greeks knew this. Aristotle pointed out the link between riddles and metaphor. Riddles compel us to think about veiled meanings, allegories, and the flexible quality of our language. They challenge our wit, memory and verbal facility.
This doesn’t sound like child’s play, but I’ve yet to see a child turn down the opportunity. Perhaps it’s the pleasure of leaping from the literal to figurative or the simple joy of fooling a grownup!
Riddles are subversive, they ambush serious thinkers with trickery, and this is delightful to children. Take this common riddle for example: Constantinople is a very long word. How do you spell it? Imagine the thousands of adults who have spelled Constantinople only to be told by a youngster they’re completely wrong. The word to be spelled is it!
In a broader sense, you might think of riddles as mental athletics. They turn up in literature, mathematics, science, music and art. Shakespeare was fond of putting riddles and puns in his plays. The Dutch artist, M.C. Escher, was famed for his perplexing pictures of repeating staircases and interwoven birds and fish. Bach wrote the enigmatic Crab Canon, which plays the same note sequence forwards, backwards and in complement to itself; and then there’s Einstein’s riddle of the five houses.
So, if a child invites you to answer a riddle, be prepared! Have one of your own, ready. You’ll be doing your brain a favor!
Answers to the riddles:
- What has four eyes but cannot see? Mississippi.
- What has a mouth but doesn’t eat, a bed but doesn’t sleep, and runs but never walks? A river.
- What does the poor have, the rich lack, and if you eat it, you’ll die? Nothing.
*********************************************************************
Our guest blogger today is author, George Hagen. Mr. Hagen’s most recent novel is the middle grade fantasy, Gabriel Finley & The Raven’s Riddle. If you have a favorite literary/math/science riddle, send it to his contact page at GabrielFinley.com.
Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at [email protected].
Trick or Treat!
Which is it? Well, Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums is a treat of a book that's full of tricks!
Read on ...
Stewart, Trenton Lee. 2011.
The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums. New York: Little Brown.
A message from Mr. Benedict:
... I urge you to put on your thinking cap (or if you are already wearing your thinking cap, to adjust it so that it sits most comfortably on your head), for with the aid - indeed, the considerable contribution -- of the Society members themselves, as well as a few of my associates, I have compiled the manual you now hold in your hands: a compressed and highly portable collection of mental challenges. May you find them rewarding!
Puzzles, enigmas, and conundrums! A perfect companion book for the remarkable children who share in the adventures of The Mysterious Benedict Society. It's a wonder that Trenton Lee Stewart didn't think of this earlier!
This new book of puzzles and riddles of all varieties, offers something for MBS fans as well as those who are unfamiliar with the books. The book includes quotes from the novels and character studies of each one of the members, as well as a Table of Contents, Hints, and Useful Resources. Great fun! But a warning - it's not easy! I found myself checking the hints more than once. I didn't attempt all of the trials (there are many), but all appear to require an answer to complete the final challenge. There are hours of entertainment contained in this little volume, illustrated by Diana Sudyka, and printed on glossy paper.
If you haven't read any of
The Mysterious Benedict Society books, check out this
link to my review of the very first book in the series, and be sure to check out
The Mysterious Benedict website.
A new book,
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (a prequel), is due out in April.
Read an excerpt here, or read the excerpt contained in the final pages of
The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums.
Please help me welcome my newest book, the board book Little Illinois.
It’s the latest entry in Sleeping Bear Press’
Little State series.
Each Little book in the series shares 10 rhyming riddles that introduce the very youngest of readers to a particular state’s symbols and identifying features. Brightly-painted clues frame each riddle.
I’ve been smiling-smiling-smiling since Sleeping Bear Press invited me to write the Illinois entry for this series.
Forgive the pun, but little did my publisher and editor know: I’ve been preparing for this moment since I was 9 years old!
My state, when my fifth grade teacher Miss Smiley (I swear that was her name!) assigned each of us a U.S. state, oh, so long ago, Alaska and Hawaii were relatively new? Illinois, the Land of Lincoln!
I used my very best penmanship to write my perfectly formatted business letter to The State of Illinois, Springfield, Illinois, requesting materials to share with my class.
I can still remember waiting at the top of my Philadelphia home’s steps, hoping my mailman's worn brown leather bag held my package.
Once my Illinois-postmarked manila envelope arrived, I read the colorful pamphlets, memorized the state symbols, the state capital, the largest city, the crops and famous Presidents, then shared my information with my classmates.
Miss Smiley awarded me an A for my presentation. :)
Miss Smiley and that treasured package traveled my mind as I drove west, college diploma in hand, through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, to Illinois, to “the city by the lake that stands sky-high.” I was off to teach fifth grade (!), serenaded by the “purdy-purdy-purdy” of Illinois’ very own red-feathered state bird. Several Augusts in a row I drove south to the state capital to that “summer party with show cows and pigs.” Along the way, I passed Illinois’ “golden-petal-ed “Hi!”-waving prairie flowers and farmers’ fields ripe with tall, kernel-ed stalks.
O, the joy I had writing L
What did Paul Revere say when his ride was over?
Posted on 9/20/2009
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Time Machine, Three Trips: Where Would You Go?
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Everyone in this planet absolutely adores monkeys, but nobody likes to be called one. Some say we evolved from them. We keep them in zoos so we can throw bananas at them, and train them to ride unicycles to entertain us. Some of them have picked up the habit of smoking, and others steal away precious equipment from our parked car on a safari trip. After scouring the net for information about these wonderful creatures with hands on their feet, I gathered these five timeless riddles. See if you can answer them all:
Riddle Five: What looks exactly like a monkey but isn’t a monkey?
Riddle Four: The monkey and the rabbit were having an argument. The rabbit made a bet saying he knows a place where he can sit but the monkey cannot. The monkey agreed to the bet. The rabbit won. What place could the rabbit sit but the monkey could not?
Riddle Three: If one monkey can eat one banana in one minute, how many minutes would it take 100 monkeys to eat 100 bananas?
Riddle Two: You are in a room together with 3 primates: a monkey, a chimp, and an ape. The monkey only knows how to write, the chimp only knows how to talk, and the ape only knows how to solve math problems. Which primate in the room is the smartest?
Riddle One: A monkey walking in the forest falls down a deep hole. The hole is 30 feet deep. Everyday, the monkey jumps up 3 feet and slides down 2 feet. How many days would it take for the monkey to escape the hole? (There is no “trick” answer to this, it can be solved naturally)
Answers:
5: A photo of a monkey
4: The rabbit can sit on the monkey’s back but the monkey can’t sit on his back.
3: One minute
2: You, the human, are the smartest primate in the room
1: It would take 28 days. On the 28th day, once the monkey jumps up 3 feet it could already escape the hole.
Posted on 7/27/2009
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Hello! It’s back to school time soon! Make lunch more fun for your kids by slipping in some notes, jokes or riddles in their lunch box. There are many websites where you can find notes and jokes that you can print for free. I found the best of them and here they are. These notes are so cute, your kids will love them!
http://www.alenkasprintables.com/lunchboxnotes.shtml
Alenkasprintables is one of my all time favorite websites for free printables. You will find free lunch box printable notes in here. The graphics are very cute! There are also editable notes! You can edit the notes before printing them. You can change the words and replace with your own text. And while you’re on this website, check out their other wonderful free printables too. They have free school printables, free “color me” notecards, free printable awards, free printable name cards and free printable address labels. They also have printable chore charts and bookmarks that you can print for free.
http://disney-stationary.com/printables/lunch-notes.php
Children love Disney characters! There are free printable lunch notes with images of Disney Characters from the High School Musical, Wall-E, the Jonas Brothers, Honnah Montana, Disney Princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, etc), Dumbo, Mickey Mouse, etc.
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/craft-templates/printable/lunch-box-jokes/lunch-box-jokes.html
There are jokes that you can print and cut out. The children will like these!
http://www.kidprintables.com/lunchboxnotes/
These are very cute notes. If you put them on your kids’ lunch box they will be very happy. It is a nice surprise and it makes them feel very loved and special.
http://www.youthonline.ca/stationery/lunchboxnotes/
You will find free cute lunchbox notes in free, ready to print and cut.
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/tvsearch.php?in=fe_printables&type=printable&theme=lunchbox-notes
There are many assorted lunch box notes in here. These are very thoughtful notes. The children will adore them.
http://www.gingerbreadnook.com/backpacknotes/
There are 4 notes per page to print. The bears and bunnies graphics are absolutely adorable. These free backpack and lunch notes are great!
http://www.nickjr.com/parenting/parenting_features/first-day-of-school/brown-bag-school-lunch/kids-lunch-boxes/index.jhtml
You will find really cute free printable lunch box love notes in here. The characters are Dora The Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Oswald and Little Bill.
http://www.frugal-families.com/printables/lunchboxnotes.gif
There are 8 lovely lunch box notes ready to print and cut.
http://www.the-heart-of-motherhood.com/printable-lunchbox-notes.html
There are 10 nice individual lunch box notes. You can print them on plain paper or card stock.
I hope you enjoyed this article on where to find free printable notes and jokes for your children’s lunch box!
Posted on 7/27/2009
Blog:
Time Machine, Three Trips: Where Would You Go?
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Websites,
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back to school,
Top 10,
printables,
printable,
lunch box,
sites,
riddles,
lunch box notes,
lunchbox,
lunchbox notes,
printabl,
printable notes,
Add a tag
Hello! It’s back to school time soon! Make lunch more fun for your kids by slipping in some notes, jokes or riddles in their lunch box. There are many websites where you can find notes and jokes that you can print for free. I found the best of them and here they are. These notes are so cute, your kids will love them!
http://www.alenkasprintables.com/lunchboxnotes.shtml
Alenkasprintables is one of my all time favorite websites for free printables. You will find free lunch box printable notes in here. The graphics are very cute! There are also editable notes! You can edit the notes before printing them. You can change the words and replace with your own text. And while you’re on this website, check out their other wonderful free printables too. They have free school printables, free “color me” notecards, free printable awards, free printable name cards and free printable address labels. They also have printable chore charts and bookmarks that you can print for free.
http://disney-stationary.com/printables/lunch-notes.php
Children love Disney characters! There are free printable lunch notes with images of Disney Characters from the High School Musical, Wall-E, the Jonas Brothers, Honnah Montana, Disney Princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, etc), Dumbo, Mickey Mouse, etc.
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/craft-templates/printable/lunch-box-jokes/lunch-box-jokes.html
There are jokes that you can print and cut out. The children will like these!
http://www.kidprintables.com/lunchboxnotes/
These are very cute notes. If you put them on your kids’ lunch box they will be very happy. It is a nice surprise and it makes them feel very loved and special.
http://www.youthonline.ca/stationery/lunchboxnotes/
You will find free cute lunchbox notes in free, ready to print and cut.
http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/tvsearch.php?in=fe_printables&type=printable&theme=lunchbox-notes
There are many assorted lunch box notes in here. These are very thoughtful notes. The children will adore them.
http://www.gingerbreadnook.com/backpacknotes/
There are 4 notes per page to print. The bears and bunnies graphics are absolutely adorable. These free backpack and lunch notes are great!
http://www.nickjr.com/parenting/parenting_features/first-day-of-school/brown-bag-school-lunch/kids-lunch-boxes/index.jhtml
You will find really cute free printable lunch box love notes in here. The characters are Dora The Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Oswald and Little Bill.
http://www.frugal-families.com/printables/lunchboxnotes.gif
There are 8 lovely lunch box notes ready to print and cut.
http://www.the-heart-of-motherhood.com/printable-lunchbox-notes.html
There are 10 nice individual lunch box notes. You can print them on plain paper or card stock.
I hope you enjoyed this article on where to find free printable notes and jokes for your children’s lunch box!
Gordon Thompson is Professor of Music at Skidmore College. His book, Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out, offers an insider’s view of the British pop-music recording industry. Starting tomorrow he will be providing hints to a musical riddle. His introduction is below and be sure to check back everyday this week for hints. The answer will be revealed on Monday! Feel free to guess the answer in the comments.
Part of what makes being a college professor fun lies in introducing students to subjects I know they will love. All of them have heard examples of sixties British rock and pop, but perhaps unsurprisingly, they arrive with a smattered education. I offer courses on this music ever year and always find the classes filled with enthusiastic students who want to share what they have learnt with their parents, perhaps as a way trump adult knowledge.
As an ethnomusicologist, I begin by culturally contextualizing the music, the musicians, the modes of production/distribution, and the consumers in this era. In that spirit, and inspired by my love of mysteries, I thought that this month I would provide something appropriate for Oxford’s blog readership. A recent quiz by Justyna Zajac on American libraries made me realize that in the age of the Internet, readers can obtain answers to questions with a few keystrokes. The information age pervades everything we know or think we know, including pop music with its numerous on-line biographies and discographies. I wanted something more challenging.
And so, contorting a question I might ask my students about British popular music in the fifties and sixties, I have framed a problem in the form of a riddle. I will expand the doggerel with additional lines on each of the next two days. On Monday, I will provide an explanation of the riddle. Along the way, I encourage you to share your guesses and reasoning.
Good luck!
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The trilogy is one of my favorite series (next to lemony snicket's). It even inspired me to do an academic paper on identification of gifted/talented children using non-traditional means - using these three books as my 'material' - but I haven't gotten around to doing that. I liked the first two though, compared to the final one which I found to be overly-stretched out.
Thank you for reviewing this book. I didn't know there was a spin-off from the series. I'm also looking forward to the prequel. :)
I'm wondering how well the book stands on its own. Would it make a reader curious enough about the series to lead them to the books?
Tammy
Apples with Many Seeds
Tammy, I think it will work on its own. The puzzles, while related to the series, can be solved without having read any of the books. Any information that's needed from the books is included (newspaper clippings, notebook entries, etc.). I definitely think it could spur interest in the series. Thanks for visiting! Lisa