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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Your secret mission, should you choose to accept it:
Save the world from chaos by unmasking the hacker threatening to shut down the internet!
Put your spy skills to the test with four areas of puzzling challenges from hidden words and codebreaking to logic and observation puzzles, before you take on your top-secret mission.
Hurry, this message will self-destruct in 3, 2, 1 …
This entertaining puzzle book for readers aged 8+ (part of a series) imagines that the reader is a secret agent who has to complete their training at Spy HQ before they go out in the field. It has a good mix of logic and graphic puzzles - certainly something for everyone - and is a good way of introducing young readers to puzzle solving techniques but the black and white illustrations prevent some of the visual puzzles from working quite as well as they should.
The book is divided into 4 sections of different types of puzzles followed by a special mission at the end, which ties together and builds on the types of puzzle the reader has done before. There’s a fun name generator at the start, which helps the reader to buy into the whole spy concept and all the answers are at the end so that readers can find out if they got it right.
The puzzles are of the following types:
- finding the odd one out;
- mazes (including mazes that include number puzzles);
- word searches;
- finding matches;
- working out which item is in a set position;
- spot the difference;
- finding hidden objects;
- word puzzle grids;
- word codes;
- number codes;
- code breaking;
- word scrambles;
- anagrams;
- word illusions;
- logic puzzles.
The final mission incorporates different types of these puzzles so that the reader gets to utilise the techniques that they have already learned. My only real criticism of the book is that because it uses black and while illustrations on quite rough paper some of the visual word illusions are perhaps more difficult to solve than they should be. Other than that though, there is genuinely something for everyone here and it’s a good way of getting young readers to enjoy puzzle solving, which can help with verbal reasoning skills.
The Verdict:
This entertaining puzzle book for readers aged 8+ works imagines that the reader is a secret agent who has to complete their training at Spy HQ before they go out in the field. It has a good mix of logic and graphic puzzles - certainly something for everyone - and is a good way of introducing young readers to puzzle solving techniques but the black and white illustrations prevent some of the visual puzzles from working quite as well as they should.
SPY AGENCY PUZZLE BOOK MISSION: THE HIDDEN HACKER was released in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Save the world from chaos by unmasking the hacker threatening to shut down the internet!
Put your spy skills to the test with four areas of puzzling challenges from hidden words and codebreaking to logic and observation puzzles, before you take on your top-secret mission.
Hurry, this message will self-destruct in 3, 2, 1 …
This entertaining puzzle book for readers aged 8+ (part of a series) imagines that the reader is a secret agent who has to complete their training at Spy HQ before they go out in the field. It has a good mix of logic and graphic puzzles - certainly something for everyone - and is a good way of introducing young readers to puzzle solving techniques but the black and white illustrations prevent some of the visual puzzles from working quite as well as they should.
The book is divided into 4 sections of different types of puzzles followed by a special mission at the end, which ties together and builds on the types of puzzle the reader has done before. There’s a fun name generator at the start, which helps the reader to buy into the whole spy concept and all the answers are at the end so that readers can find out if they got it right.
The puzzles are of the following types:
- finding the odd one out;
- mazes (including mazes that include number puzzles);
- word searches;
- finding matches;
- working out which item is in a set position;
- spot the difference;
- finding hidden objects;
- word puzzle grids;
- word codes;
- number codes;
- code breaking;
- word scrambles;
- anagrams;
- word illusions;
- logic puzzles.
The final mission incorporates different types of these puzzles so that the reader gets to utilise the techniques that they have already learned. My only real criticism of the book is that because it uses black and while illustrations on quite rough paper some of the visual word illusions are perhaps more difficult to solve than they should be. Other than that though, there is genuinely something for everyone here and it’s a good way of getting young readers to enjoy puzzle solving, which can help with verbal reasoning skills.
The Verdict:
This entertaining puzzle book for readers aged 8+ works imagines that the reader is a secret agent who has to complete their training at Spy HQ before they go out in the field. It has a good mix of logic and graphic puzzles - certainly something for everyone - and is a good way of introducing young readers to puzzle solving techniques but the black and white illustrations prevent some of the visual puzzles from working quite as well as they should.
SPY AGENCY PUZZLE BOOK MISSION: THE HIDDEN HACKER was released in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2025. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
