Mindgames Pattern Games - Tapa dura

The puzzle master is back. Ivan Moscovich continues the educational Mindgames series with two new puzzle and activity books for kids ages 8 and up. Following on the successful heels of PROBABILITY GAMES and NUMBER GAMES - together with over 470,000 copies in print - here are NETWORK GAMES and PATTERN GAMES, each featuring a three-dimensional, interactive puzzle on the cover, plus dozens of full-colour puzzles inside. NETWORK GAMES dwells in the world of connectivity. Think Internet, or a network of roads. Beginning with the cover's airline challenge, here are a variety of maze-like games that flex the young mind while incorporating such principles as Euler's rule and the Ramsey theory. There are knot puzzles, chess piece puzzles, Raiders of the Lost Cubes and Petunia's Pickle. In PATTERN GAMES, Mr. Moscovich introduces one of the newest areas of mathematics, the science of patterns. The Tower of Triangles and Starfish Sammy, Two-Tall Paul, Crazy Crayons and Goblins Getaway - in 2-D and 3-D, involving numbers, logic, perception and imagination, these puzzles play on the fantastic variety of patterns around us. All solutions provided in the back, of course!

Think outside the box! Starfish Sammy Tower of Triangles, Three Blind Dice, and Bee-hold.

Beginning with the game of Queen's Standoff on the cover - a one- or two player challenge inspired by the game of chess - here are 23 ingenious puzzles based on patterns that stretch the mind.

Guide a tricky laser beam through six blue boxes, discover the difference between perfect, and imperfect squares, decipher codes, test a friend's perceptions, play with polygons. And prove the famous Pythagorean Theorem.

Bring a pencil, but remember - (1) you don't have to be a whiz to play, because (2) the most important skills you'll need are curiosity and an open mind. (Solutions and explanations are provided, of course!)