Eric BerlinRezensionen

Puzzlesnacks More than 100 Clever, Bite-Sized Puzzles For Every Solver by Eric Berlin
Starts with a table of contents with chapters of intro, puzzles, hints and answers.
Intro talks about how this book was created with help from his daughter.
Everyday words and some twists make this a good brain games, shortened from the size of NY Times daily puzzles, just a snack.
I like the different layouts and how to work the puzzles is given prior to the puzzles.
This would be a perfect book for an older child to bring on the plane because you need a bit of concentration but you'd be moving along at a good speed, solving the puzzles.
Extra content included at the end. Looks very complicated when you first open the book and glance through the pages, patience it is very easy and simple to solve the puzzles.
A KEEPER!
Received this review copy from Tiller Press via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
#Puzzlesnacks #NetGalley

Winston loves his puzzles and this book is full of them. He inadvertently stumbles upon a treasure hunt when he buys a present for his sister in a second-hand shop. Turns out the treasure hunt was devised by puzzle lover himself. There is a twist in the end, that puzzle lovers will probably see ahead of time. Along the way readers are treated to many puzzles. Honestly, they are mostly given in places readers can easily stop to solve, so they don't interfere with the story.½

An almost-perfect chapter book for kids in 3rd-7th grade. The title character is amusing and has the usual issues...an annoying sister, following directions at home, and hanging out with fun pals. He also has an insatiable urge and ability to solve puzzles. Each chapter has actual puzzles that the reader can solve as well, with answers provided in the back of the book. In this first book of three, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, Winston finds himself in a group of adults trying to find a treasure possibly worth millions. The clues take him around town and interacting with a variety of characters. I was not expecting the ending to become quite so serious, but it wraps up nicely. I'm happy to know there are two more books to read in this series.

Fun book combining the puzzles of Encyclopedia Brown with the long-form story like the Hardy Boys. It's aimed at the pre-teen set, although the younger end of readers (say, 7- or 8-year-olds) might find one scene where Winston's family is held hostage a bit terrifying. The book is filled with brain teasers, few of which have much relation to the plot. I look forward to reading the next two books in the series (especially for the humor of wise-guy Malcolm!).

I had two quibbles with the book, though. The first was that one of the final mysteries required remembering something written about in barely a single paragraph earlier in the book; that seemed a little unfair. The second I'll preface with spoiler tags, although I don't think I'm giving anything from the plot away: Late in the book, a letter is found, addressed to the four children of Mr Fredericks, except they are not listed in birth order -- instead, it's the youngest, who also happens to be the one child we know, followed by the others in birth order. That just seemed very strange to me. If I'm at the target age for this book, I suspect I would have noticed the first quibble, but I doubt I would have noticed the second.

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LT Haiku:

Kid-friendly book of
puzzles that takes place in a
town-wide treasure hunt.

As said in many reviews, this is an excellent book for readers who like THE WESTING GAME. Although this isn’t the first book in the series, it takes no time to be involved in this story. Winston Breen and his buddies, Mal and Jake are invited to attend a puzzle weekend along with Mr. Breen at the estate of a famous musician. When prizes start disappearing, the secretary is blamed but there’s more to the story. Because there are so many word puzzles in the book this is not a good choice to read on a Kindle. So often you need to get to the back of the book to find the solutions, and then it’s challenging to return to the page you were on. Ages 8-10

A really great series, tailor-made for the kids who like some adventure and puzzling with their reading. Solving the puzzles is usually not integral to the story but it's nice to "play-along." Love to handsell this one.

Winston Breen and his two best friends are back for another round of puzzle-solving adventure. This time, Winston's school has been selected to compete in a puzzle competition sponsored by the quirky snack-food maven Dmitri Simon (think Willy Wonka of the salty foods empire). The mystery this time: solving the six puzzles, and finding out who the cheater is who's been sabotaging the other teams.

In the first Winston Breen book, the puzzles were dropped in more or less at random in Winston's treasure hunt; here there's a more organic part of the story, and for obvious reasons. As a result, this volume is less gimmicky than its predecessor. The extra puzzles--the ones outside of the competition--are dropped in where Winston is killing time traveling from place to place, or while waiting for people, or in other such places, instead of (actual example from the first book, as best I remember) "I'm trapped in a burning basement, and here's the puzzle it reminds me of!"

As mysteries go, this is about my speed--I've always been a fan of puzzles but mysteries don't interest me much. This is the kind of book I'd have gravitated toward in 4th or 5th grade, when the inevitable Mystery Book Report came around.

Squeezing in one last book for the year!

Winston loves puzzles. A LOT. Enough so that there are several just dropped into this book, in addition to the ones better integrated into the story. I can see upper-elementary and lower-middle school readers enjoying this mystery, where Winston and his sister (and a few random thugs and the town's librarian) are searching for treasure. The extraneous puzzles don't slow the story up too much; it's enough that it's important to the character and that's why we're seeing it, but it gives the book a more obvious gimmick than just "hey, a mystery, with ciphers!"

Winston Breen is a junior high school student who Loves Puzzles. His school becomes involved in a puzzle solving contest that has been generated by the local Potatoe Chip company. If they can solve the puzzles the school will win 50,000.00. Winston and two of his friends tackle the puzzles but encounter a sabatour in the process. Will they solve the mystery and win the grand prize? An accessible read for 5th grade and up.

Fun book, especially for kids who love to solve puzzles! Not something I would recommend widely, though.½

My friend Eric Berlin's third YA novel in his series "The Puzzling World of Winston Breen," The Puzzler's Mansion, came out last week. As with the other books in the series, Eric has written a YA mystery whose plot revolves around Winston having to solve puzzles, with additional incidental puzzles dropped in for those who like that sort of thing.

The story was enjoyable, the writing crisp. And Winston is growing up; it's great to see that the Winston of this book has matured compared to when we first met him. He's still friends with Mal and Jake, but their friendship is evolving as well. This not only keeps the narrative fresh, but it help to make Winston believable as a human being.

The context this time is that Winston has been invited to a weekend of puzzle-solving, but someone starts stealing the prizes. It reminded me in a few spots of Dorothy Sayers's Peter Wimsey short story, "The Necklace of Pearls" (which is a good thing). More than that I won't say here.

The first couple of chapters felt a little slow, but once the main event got underway, the pages flew by, and I was sad to reach the end. The puzzles were fun, as one expects from Eric (not just in his books, but in the NYTimes and for the National Puzzlers' League conventions); as in the previous books, though, if solving puzzles isn't your thing, you can just read the book and let Winston solve them for you.

Congratulations to Eric on another fine story. As I said at the top of this review, Eric is a friend of mine, but even if he weren't, I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who is or ever has been a young adult.

Winston is a boy who LOVES puzzles. Once, he was called up to the principal's office because there is a difficult puzzle been sent to the principle. As they figured the code out, they realize their school has the opportunity to participate in a puzzle-solving contest. Which ever school wins, gets big cash for their school. Can they win? Is there a cheater in this contest? Go and figure it out.½

Winston is a boy who LOVES puzzles. As he is lost in thoughts he is called up to the principal because there is a difficult puzzle. As they crack the code they realize their school has the opportunity to participate in a puzzle-solving contest. Which ever school wins, gets big cash for their school. Can they win? Is there a cheater in this contest?½

Winston just entered a puzzle contest with his two BFF's,Jake and Mal, to earn $50,000,000 for there school. Mr Garvey (the three boys not so favourite teacher) was the chaffer. But on the day of the contest, they, and manny other teams find on team isn't playing fair. Who could it be?½

Winston Breen is the main character in this awesome book. I think this book is really great because the author actually lets you solve the puzzles. If you can't solve a puzzle then there is a page at the back of the book that tells you the answer. Winston goes on the puzzle quest with Jake and Mal his two best friends. The teacher that goes with them is Mr. Garvey the advanced math teacher and the 3 boys despise Mr Garvey a little.½

Mrs. Lewis’s father hid a ring worth thousands of dollars and gave four strips of wood to each child in the family to find it. The problem is that the four children hate each other and you need all sixteen strips to find the ring. But the kids never got along so they haven’t found the ring yet. Katie (Winston’s sister) finds four strips in a secret compartment in a box Winston gave her for her b-day. Mrs. Lewis decides to bring herself into the puzzle.

Winston is in it for the puzzle. Winston loves puzzles he couldn’t survive without them. He is going to share part of the end money with Katie (it’s Katie’s money though).

Katie is the owner of one of the batches of wood strips. She feels left out of this because she doesn’t solve any puzzles. She is nice and until later.

North just wants to have some of the treasure. He is not very trustworthy. He has four strips too. He’s nice but treacherous. He is an old treasure hunter.

Glowacka is a selfish and sly man who only wants the treasure all for himself. He has four more strips. He and North have a past together. They were rival treasure hunters.

Marietta is just here to make sure nobody does anything stupid. He doesn’t have any strips and doesn’t want some of the money in the end. He is big and burly. It’s good to be on his nice side. Glowacka is not on his nice side.

I wouldn’t have trusted Glowacka or North at all if I were Winston. I wouldn’t have trusted anybody except myself and Katie.

I recommend this book to mystery and puzzle lovers. This book has puzzles all over it.

Winston and his friend were in town working on the puzzle competition, but when they looked back at their teacher's car they saw that the car had a flat tire. This story was a page turner because I'm like I thought they're gonna win but got held back and I don't know what will happen. I think this is a very good story because as you read there are puzzles.

Winston is a wiz with logic puzzles, so when his school is selected to compete in a contest sponsored by a local potato ship company, he gets to choose who'll be on the team. He and his friends get off to a good start but soon discover that someone is trying to sabotage their efforts...and the other teams' too. Who's behind the potato chip puzzles? Will their team be able to win the contest AND uncover the mystery? Part of the fun of this story: getting to solve puzzles along the way.

Being a bit of a puzzle freak this book had me quite excited. It is the book version of the Ninentdo DS games of the Professor Layton series. Some of the puzzles help solve the mystery while others do not. Students who enjoy this series and puzzles will enjoy this book and hopefully the sequel which is now on my reading list.

Eric Berlin's The Puzzling World of Winston Breen thought of an interesting way to present puzzles.
The author tries to give detail about the setting's surrounding's. Also in some of the puzzles were drawn out to should clearly what the puzzle is exactly.
The book starts out with Winston's sister Katie having a birthday party. The party starts out well, near the middle when they were opening gifts a dramatic situation occurs. Winston is stuck with a puzzle and this puzzle is the puzzle that is carried on until the end. Will that puzzle be solved? Maybe, maybe not.
As the story goes on, the book advances into many more areas that they discover. When they are standing in the intersections looking at the four corner houses, the author describes the situation so well it's almost as you are there going along with the treasure hunt. Also when Zach Dilmer had the gun to Winston's head, it almost seemed as if you can hear the trigger being pulled.
I recommend this book to any puzzle lovers as I am one myself. If you like a good mystery tied in with a bit of adventure this is the book for you! Don't let your friends say it's boring read it if want to! I for one was not discouraged by my fellow peers telling me that this book was boring, it was one of the best I ever read.

Predictable, but still enjoyable. The puzzles were fun and weren't necessary to solve in order to enjoy the book. I'd recommend this for a boy who didn't want to read The Red Blazer Girls series or any child who likes mysteries.½

This book by Eric Berlin is very good and I'll will surely recommend this book for students and teachers that loves reading and sloving puzzles, in this book the rising action where Winston and his friends were in a contest to solve puzzles and win $50,000 that part just hooked me to keep reading and find what happens next. I really like how Eric Berlin writes the book sometimes in the book he writes in third-person and sometimes he writes in first-person. Two words "Awesome book" and thats why i give it 4 1/2½

If you like puzzles, this is worth it just for the puzzles scattered throughout. The characterization makes Scooby-Doo look well-developed, and Breen is an amusing entry into crowd of Harry Reed, Encyclopedia Brown, et al.

Winston and his friends enter an all-day puzzle contest to win fifty-thousand dollars for their school, but they must also figure out who is trying to keep them from winning.

The Potato Chip Puzzles is the second book about Winston Breen, a junior high school student with a penchant for puzzles. I did not read the first book, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, but it had no bearing on this current mystery.
In The Potato Chip Puzzles, an eccentric potato chip tycoon has designed a contest for local schools. Each participating school enters a team to solve a series of ingenious puzzles spread across town. Winston Breen, along with his teacher and two friends, Jake and Mal, race through town solving intricate word, numeric and logic puzzles in their quest to be the first team to finish and claim the $50,000.00 prize. The puzzles are difficult, and a saboteur threatens to make them dangerous as well.

This a great choice for reluctant readers, boys (all of the main characters are male), and fans of puzzles and mysteries. Readers are easily drawn into this story with the opportunity to solve all of the puzzles and the mystery as well. A chapter of additional puzzles and an answer key conclude this fast-paced mystery.

Visit The Puzzling World of Winston Breen website for games, puzzles and more.

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