The Potato Chip Puzzles

The Potato Chip Puzzles (The Puzzling World of Winston Breen)
By Eric Berlin
J BER

Winston Breen, a precocious junior high school student with a proclivity for puzzles, is picked to represent his school in a puzzle-solving competition hosted by a local potato chip tycoon. The prize is $50,000 for the winning team’s school. Winston, to the dismay of his competitive school chaperone Mr. Garvey, chooses his friends Mal and Jake to be on his team. The competition consists of six puzzles scattered in places throughout the city, taking the teams to a planetarium, a farm, an amusement park, and other interesting locales. Throughout the competition, a saboteur wreaks havoc with the competing teams and sows discord and suspicion between the contestants. Winston must not only solve all the puzzles created for the competition, but also figure out who is trying to win at all costs.

Winston faces many ethical dilemmas throughout the competition and shows more maturity and diplomacy than some of the teacher chaperones, who seem a bit one-dimensional. The plot moves at a quick pace and incorporates various fun word and number puzzles for the reader to solve along with Winston and his teammates. (Answers are provided in the back.)

Mystery fans and lovers of puzzles should enjoy The Potato Chip Puzzles. Those interested in solving more puzzles can work on the extra puzzles in the back of the book or visit www.winstonbreen.com. Pair this book with The Red Blazer Girls by Michael Beil (J BEI) or some puzzle books in the 793 section of the library.

Reviewed by Margaret Ballard