A look a puzzle books: Train Your Brain: Brain-Scrambling Challenges & Mind-Melting Conundrums from Barron's Educational

Train Your Brain: Mind-Melting Conundrums (Train Your Brain Puzzle Books) Authors: Robert Allen, Harold Gale, Carolyn Skitt

Designed by three puzzle-book pros and Mensa members, Mind-Melting Conundrums is brimming with almost 100 pages of number stumpers, logic problems, and verbal tests. Split into three levels of difficulty--called Super Brain, Mega Mind, and Ultra Genius--it gets more challenging as the pages progress. Kids, adults, and anyone else who enjoys a good dose of mental calisthenics will find themselves hooked by each marvelous, mind-melting puzzle.

2 pages from Mind-Melting Coundrums

Train Your Brain: Brain-Scrambling

Challenges (Train Your Brain Puzzle Books) Authors: Robert Allen, Harold Gale, Carolyn Skitt

Throw down the gauntlet to kids and send them on a series of exciting problem-solving quests that will get their brains buzzing. Designed by three puzzle-book pros and Mensa members, Brain-Scrambling Challenges is packed with questions that test kids' brains to the limit...and show them that problem solving = a lot of fun!

• Endlessly engaging (and shhh…ultimately educational), this book is packed with hours of stimulating entertainment. It includes:
• Almost 100 pages of challenging riddles, conundrums, and problems such as anagrams, diagrams, word problems, number searches, and more that will put puzzle lovers right in their element
• Three levels of difficulty--called Super Brain, Mega Mind, and Ultra Genius--so the book gets more challenging as it progresses
• Loads of quirky, fun illustrations of spaceships, big cats, wooly mammoths, and more
• Winning text that encourages and challenges puzzle fanatics to keep going

Kids, adults, and anyone else who enjoys a good dose of mental calisthenics will find themselves hooked by each puzzle-solving challenge. It's really a "no-brainer" for parents, grandparents, and friends everywhere who want to give a gift that children will love now--and remember fondly for years to come.

2 pages Brain-Scrambling Challenges

My review: Facing reality, I'll just say that I am simply not a "puzzle" person. True life is full of puzzles and these must be solved using common sense, learned problem solving, and critical thinking. Just because I'm not a puzzle person - especially a puzzle-in-a-book person, doesn't mean that others don't thoroughly enjoy and love the challenge.

The series of "Train Your Brain" puzzle books all feature the quirky "brain figure" on the cover showing off his muscle power. The books span a beginners level and proceed through tricky to more difficult. All are considered appropriate for children typically in grades 2-6. Personally, I found some of the puzzles in the two books featured in this review were not too difficult. Some were much too much of a puzzle for this non-puzzle-loving lady.

I thoroughly believe that mental calisthenics can keep the brain active and well-functioning into the later years just as physical exercise can help maintain a strong body. Whether it is crossword puzzles or mind-scramblers that utilize math concepts and rationale, using these tools is good for the mind. So I can recommend these for everyone to see if you're up to the challenge. Hey--- these aren't just for kids.

DISCLOSURE: I received the two books mentioned to facilitate this review. I was not required to give a positive review and I was not compensated.