These books are aimed at Primary School age children, and I read most of them when I was in primary school. I had borrowed about 20 of them from a friend and it wasn't until I was 17 that I discovered that I still had them all... I told him and much to my delight he said I could keep them!
Just recently, I have finally managed to (just about) complete the collection and so I found myself thinking, Why am I working so hard to complete this collection if I'm not going to read them.
So, I am now reading them. I'll review them as I go, but will most likely keep my reviews to a paragraph or so... Also, I'll just keep editing this entry and adding them to the bottom so that they are all together. That is, if I can work out how to put images mid way through posts, not just at the top.
1) Escape from Blood Castle by Jenny Tyler and Graham Round
As this is the very first of it's kind, first published in 1985, there's very much an element of getting the reader to understand how these books work. What I enjoyed most about this book, is the promise of what can be achieved with this format of narrative. I live puzzles and mazes and riddles, as a lot of children (and adults do). And to know that you need to be paying attention to the details on each page just in case they are needed to solve a puzzle later on, and the challenge of solving the puzzle before turning the page! I remember now more strongly why I enjoyed reading these as a child, and I am very much enjoying them again now!
2) The Curse of the Lost Idol by Gabby Waters and Graham Round
This was great fun! A Who-Dun-It based in Egypt (one of my favourite subjects as a child). There are some great lines in this one which made me laugh such as, "his weedy biceps could not cope with the weight." hehehe. The puzzles were a little more straight forward than the first one, but you still had to be on the ball to work them out! Although, the would-be thieves might have been punished a little too severely in the end!
3) Murder On The Midnight Plane by Gabby Waters and Graham Round
Ooo, here we are introduced to murder in this series... things are becoming more serious! :P This one was good old fashioned detective work and relied more on the information you come across on previous pages than the first two. Deductive reasoning, maths problems and a scrutinizing eye stand between the reader and the answer to the murder mystery!
4) The Incredible Dinosaur Expedition by Karen Dolby
For one which I recall enjoying a lot as a child, this one let me down slightly. This may have something to do with how far I am now willing to suspend reality... but there are some things in this one which left me thinking '...Are you sure?...' Still involves some fun puzzles, and clearly one for those with an interest in dinosaurs.
5) The Intergalactic Bus Trip by Martin Oliver
A space adventure with friendly aliens evil robots and a good collection of puzzles to solve! Helping Tom and Izzy survive the wrath of the Robot Raiders (simply for achieving a high score on a video game) was lots of fun!
6) Time Train To Ancient Rome by Gaby Waters
This is one I also enjoyed a lot as a child (a love of all things ancient I suppose) and while I did enjoy the trip down memory lane, I seemed to get stuck on how many of the puzzles were the 'look and find' type. 'What's wrong with this picture?' It made it an even faster read than the other's had been, and there were more difficult puzzles as well, but I found I wasn't stumped for too long on any one page.
7) Danger at Demon's Cove by Karen Dolby and Graham Round
In this one we see the first return of characters. In this case, the villains the notorious Dopple Gang! Danger at Demon's Cove makes you keep your eyes alert, subtlety weaving clues into the entire story. It was a good adventure.
8) Agent Arthur's Jungle Journey by Martin Oliver and Paddy Mounter.
This one was delightful! Mounter's illustrations are fantastic for this style of book being beautifully rendered while also telling the story so well. There is a really good mix of puzzle types keeping it interesting while we help Arthur and his dog Sleuth (with a lovable anthropomorphised character) solve them. I look forward to more of the Agent Arthur titles.
9) Agent Arthur On the Stormy Seas by Martin Oliver and Paddy Mounter
Ah, the return of our hero Agent Arthur... who's 'elusive' Uncle Jake seems to be on the last page of these books to help save the day after Arthur does all the hard work and nearly dies several times over... But hey! When you found the Action Agency you can employ others to do the dirty work...
10) The Ghost In the Mirror by Karen Dolby
After years of childhood spent watching Scooby-Doo, this book seemed all too familiar. One thing I loved about this, though, was how much fun it was! One page in particular had puzzles which were effectively spooky party tricks which readers could try at home. And just when you thought that it was all fun and games and there was no such thing as ghosts.......
11) The Haunted Tower by Susannah Leigh
It seems that if Usborne puzzle adventres are to have ghosts, then these ghosts will always first be some one dressing up as ghosts, but will end with a mysterious apperition scaring the villians. None the less, this had some inventive puzzles in it. For some reason, I just love the ones which are clogs/gears and you need to work out which way to turn things...
12) Agent Arthur's Arctic Adventure by Martin Oliver and Paddy Mounter
I'm really enjoying the Agent Arthur books from this series. However, They all contain 2 or 3 puzzles written in Action Agency Code which without a pen and paper (or even with) is rather tiresome to figure out. It's not as if they're in decypherable... they're just rather time consuming to work out. That said, Arthur and Sleuth get into all sorts of near-death encounters which, with your help, they end up surviving. It's Action! It's Fun!
13) The Vanishing Village by Sarah Dixon
This is anther one I had particularly fond memorys of from when I was young and it lived up to it! From the delightlfully (steroetipically) messy 'artistic' Aunt, to the mysterous cloaked villians who hide in the background hoping to thawrt our heros, Jay and Ben, the adventure to brake the curse on this village is a wonderful romp.
13) Search for the Sunken City by Martin Oliver
Search for the Sunken City is delightfully refreshing. It is completley devoid of anything supernatural or fantastical and is simply a fast paced 'thwart-the-baddies' action adventrue with lots of enjoyable puzzles along the way.
15) Journey to the Lost Temple by Susannah Leigh
An enjoyable jungle romp through 'Wot-A Skor-Cha', this adventure has some new puzzle types, not yet seen in this series. It was great fun trying to solve them before the Bruza Brothers.
16) The Pyramid Plot by Justin Somper and Peter Wingham
This one is what you'd expect from the title (especially if you have been reading the series through): a plan to steal and sell acient Egyptian treasures, set in a pyramid with pleanty of hieroglyphs to decypher. Throw in some kidnapping, and riddles to work out, it is a great part of this series.
17) The Invisible Spy by Mark Fowler and Peter Wingham
At first, I was put off by the seemily dramatic change in illustration style. But as I read on, it became clear that it suited the comic book/nior/detective mystery style of the story perfectly. I also found that the written text had me more engaged than some of the previous books.
18) The Emerald Conspiracy by Mark Fowler and Mark Burgess
While I fel this might have been a little too heavy handed with the puzzles which involved decypering code, there were some very inventive other ones which were great fun to solve. Many of the stories in this series seem to involve a kidnapping which needs to be unraveled by some children who generally appear to have remarkably little parental supervision. But given the target audies and the fantasy/adventure way that they are presented, it's little wonder they were so popular when I was younger. If only there were something similar these days.
19) Agent Arthur's Desert Challenge by Martin Oliver and Paddy Mounter
Another Agent Arthur Adventure... and I could't help but notice that some of the puzzles wouldn't need to be solved if Arthur was a little more prepared and a little less reckless. But none-the-less, in this western we help Arthur finally catch the ellusive Bella Donna!
20) Voyage to the Edge of the World by Lesley Sims and Peter Wingham
While this was a good 'sail-to-the-new-world-find-the-potion-of-eternal-life' adventure with some interesting and tricky puzzles, I was struck by how calmly the main characters, Charlie and Will, accepted the fact that they had gone back in time. "It's dated 1491!" Charlie turned pale. "That's over 500 years ago. Have we really gone back in time?" and then they're assigned tasks and off they go to do them... not another mention of it... oh well...
21) Mutiny at Crossbones Bay by Mark Burgess
This time, not only do the children go back in time, they achieve this by falling into a hole in the ground created by an earthquake! At least they try and prove that they aren't from here and are lost and confused before resigning themselves to the pirate adventure that unravels before them...
22) Castle of Intrigue by Paul Stewart and Jane Gedye
I don't know if I grew up in the wrong part of the world, but appraently in the country where these adventures are set time travel is a regular occurance. One only needs to find a broach or a object of some kind on a muddy field and bam! there you are. Oh to live in such a place! Think of the excursions teacher could plan for their classes! Talk about hands on learning! But at least such a place exists in books! This series is fuel for the active mind.
23) The Dark Dark Knight by Lesley Sims and Peter Wingham
Unfortunately this is one which I haven't yet collected.
24) Agent Arthur's Island Adventure by Lesley Sims and Paddy Mounter
That pesky Squid Squad and it's ties with the Spider organisation are up to no good! and Agent Arthur must uncover their plan and stop it! Besides the occiasional imprisonment or chase much of Arthur's activities are pretty much 'Island Holiday' rather than adventure... But it's all cover and soon enough (with your help) Arthur gets to the bottom of it!
25) The Crimebusters Investigate by Mark Fowler and Ann Johns
As harsh as it is, when I was reading this book, I couldn't help but think that maybe it was the reason that it is the last in the series. The pictures weren't up the this series' usual standard and the puzzles were rather easy, to the point that they were a little boring to solve.
I've decided to stop reading these books for the moment, I think I need to try something else for a while. At least I got through the whole 'Usborne Puzzle Adventure Series' #1-#25. At some point in the future I'll come back and read the other 'series' which are below... The Advanced level, the whodunnits, the spinechillers, and the science puzzle adventures.
But I reccomend this series! particualrly as a trip down memory lane for those who enjoied them as children.
No comments:
Post a Comment