Tis a puzzlement Oct 8, 2007 (14 of 15 found this helpful)
When adults start reminiscing about the books of their youth, they can grow eloquent in their praise. Amusingly, when those same adults starts comparing said books to the ones coming out today, they are in very great danger of suddenly contracting a case of Old Fogeyism. "Why when I was a kid we had GOOD mysteries. With lots of clues and puzzles and clever dialogue. We had The Westing Game!" (slams down cane) "I'd like to see you whippersnappers come up with a book like that today. Hah!" If that sounds like you (or, rather, the 108-year-old part of you that comes to life whenever the subject of "kids today" crops up) then I have good news. It's good news for actual honest-to-goodness child readers as well, now that I think about it. First-time newbie kidlit book author Eric Berlin (a crossword creator for The New York Times) is a fan of puzzles. Such a fan, in fact, that he's worked them into the narrative of, "The Puzzling World of Winston Breen." You have an old-fashioned treasure hunt on the one hand, puzzles galore on the other, and some fun dialogue, memorable characters, and an action sequence or two just for spice. Hard to resist.
Twelve-year-old Winston isn't like a lot of other kids out there. He loves him his puzzles. Mind games, riddles, crosswords, you name it. So it was only logical that when his little sister Katie discovered a hidden puzzle in the old antique box he bought her, she thought he put it in there on purpose. The two siblings soon learn, though, that there's more to these three wooden pieces than immediately meets the eye as they find themselves involved in a real life treasure hunt. Glenville's richest resident Walter Fredericks died years ago, and now his puzzles have reemerged. That means that Winston and Katie need to solve some puzzles alongside an ex-cop, a librarian, two untrustworthy hooligans, and a news reporter. The only problem is, someone else wants the reward at the end of this game. Someone who's willing to do almost anything to get it. Along the way, readers can solve puzzles alongside Winston, checking their answers in the back of the book.
I liked how the novel framed the book in such a way that Winston was trying to puzzle out the real life mystery (i.e. Who broke into a local librarian's home and threatened her?) alongside the real puzzles. It's kind of a pity that Winston doesn't figure out the villains before they reveal themselves. It's always good to have a proactive protagonist. Berlin makes up for this missing piece though by then allowing his hero the chance to solve the book's central mystery instead. Still, the last line of the book would have made a little more sense if Winston exhibited crime-solving as well as puzzle-solving skills. I do love that this is a book that requires that kids get actively invested. Besides the puzzles themselves, Berlin foreshadows his action nicely with a newspaper article near the beginning of the book that mentions various robberies that later turn out to be our villain's work. And I'm pleased to say that I didn't see the real villain of this book coming until it was too too late. I don't know if Mr. Berlin means to lead you astray, but a guy who can fool a child and an adult reader has his elements firmly in place.
Berlin's particularly good at keeping potentially dark elements kid-friendly. At one point the local librarian has an out-and-out breakdown when Winston shows her something by accident. But how do you justify that kind of a reaction without suggesting that the victim (in this case, a librarian) has had something terrible happen to her. Berlin instead explains that it would be easy to harass someone. "Phone calls in the middle of the night, notes left in the mailbox, perhaps a stone tossed through a window. Small, nasty things that individually would mean little, but taken all together could make someone very afraid." It's a clever way to convey darker elements without compromising the appr