Customer Reviews

Lateral Thinking Puzzlers

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are some very clever puzzles in this book, and it is a lot of fun trying to rationalise a seemingly impossible situation. However, some of the puzzles have not an ingenious answer, but an implausible one. It works, but it makes no sense. The best way to back this up is to demonstrate. This is on of the easy puzzles taken from the very start of the book, so giving the answer away is no big deal (but stop reading if you don't want to know it):

One night during the Second World War, an allied bomber was on a mission over Germany. The plane was in perfect condition and everything on it worked properly. When it had reached its target, the pilot ordered the bomb doors opened. They opened. He then ordered the bombs released. They were released. But the bombs did not fall from the plane. Why should this be so?

Some clues are given, and the eventual answer is that the plane was flying upside-down. Now, lateral thinking it might be, but it makes no sense that a plane flying a mission during a war would order its bombs to be released over a target while it was flying upside down. A good puzzle encourages thinking, but anyone who seriously tries to answer that puzzle would discard the given answer as making no sense.

There are still some very clever puzzles to be found here, and the book is worth buying if you want a collection of lateral thinking puzzles, but beware that sometimes Sloane crosses the fine line between ingenious and implausible.

I got this book, along with 3 other Sloane & MacHale lateral thinking puzzle books for Christmas one year. At first it seemed like a sorry excuse for a gift, but as I read this one first, I found that it was a challenging endeavor of the mind. Lateral thinking, it seems, is taking a situation and finding a solution that is not the most obvious, but usually the most logical. That said, this is challenging to say the least. A good book for people who enjoy mind games.

This book is an excellent resource for teachers. I have used it with my 6th graders often. It is the perfect thing to fill in an extra five or ten minutes and really boosts the students thinking skills.

I am a trainer at a teleservices agency. I have found this book to be full of puzzles that engergize my classes and make them think. It contains some really good puzzles that are not far fetched like some of the ones found on the internet. My only complaint is that it is rather short; there are not enough puzzles. If you are looking for a book with a lot of puzzles, pass on this one.

When I bought this book at a school book fair, I had kids begging me to swap with them, but I blatantly refused and I'm glad I refused because this book has served me hours of mind-boggling entertainment and it's time I got another one.

This is the first of many enjoyable books by Paul Sloane. I have all of his books and this first one is probably one of my favorites. The books are remarkably inexpensive, and it makes buying all of his books a great deal. Jack Willins

Puzzles are one of the best ways to keep the electro chemicals in your brain moving rapidly and efficiently. The best ones are simultaneously simple and hard. Simple in the sense that the solution is easy to understand and hard in the sense that it cannot be obvious. The phrase "lateral thinking" is used to describe puzzles where the solution requires some thought from a different direction. These puzzles certainly satisfy that definition, although there are a few where the solution is a bit of a groaner.
There are five levels of puzzles: easy, moderate, historical, difficult and fiendish. There are also three sections to the book. The list of the 93 puzzles, clues to help you find the solution and the answers. When trying to solve the puzzles, I often consulted the clues, and approximately half the time found the solution rather quickly. For the other problems, I failed to arrive at the solution without some help.
While some of the puzzles in this collection are classics that veteran puzzlers will recognize, there were enough that were new to me to keep me entertained and mentally challenged throughout.

This is the finest collection of puzzels and mind boggelers compiled in to all just one book! Great fun for reading yourself or asking people the puzzles

I was looking for a book with lateral thinking puzzles to stretch my mind a little. This is a great book full of lateral thinking puzzles from easy to difficult and answers and hints in the back! If you are looking for a great book of lateral thinking puzzles, this is one!

It's definitely thinking sideways, but really reaching for that answer. Just too corny, even for gradeschoolers. Like the first one - woman had a goldfish that was unwell. brought it to vet and miraculaously healthy again. he replaced it with a new one! See, reaching for it too much. Check out Stories with Holes, Nathan Levy. very interesting, a few are too corny but most are great. With a few word changes are great even for 2nd graders.