The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

( 34 )

Overview

Read Eric Berlin's posts on the Penguin Blog.

When puzzle addict Winston Breen and his best friends head to an all-day puzzle hunt with a $50,000 grand prize, they’re pumped. But the day is not all fun and games: not only do they have a highstrung and highly competitive teacher along for the ride, but the puzzles are hard even for Winston, the other schools’ teams are no joke, and someone in the contest is playing dirty in order to win. Trying to stop this mystery cheater before...

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The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

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More About This Book

Overview

Read Eric Berlin's posts on the Penguin Blog.

When puzzle addict Winston Breen and his best friends head to an all-day puzzle hunt with a $50,000 grand prize, they’re pumped. But the day is not all fun and games: not only do they have a highstrung and highly competitive teacher along for the ride, but the puzzles are hard even for Winston, the other schools’ teams are no joke, and someone in the contest is playing dirty in order to win. Trying to stop this mystery cheater before it’s too late takes an already tough challenge to a whole other level. . . .

Packed with a variety of fun puzzles to solve, this fast-paced sequel will pull readers right into the action from start to finish.

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Editorial Reviews

Booklist
. . . another delight for hardcore puzzle gamers.
VOYA - Kevin Beach
The twelve-year-old treasure-hunter from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2007/VOYA February 2008) returns for another race against the clock. This time Winston and his two friends represent their junior high school in a legitimate puzzle competition sponsored by the eccentric owner of a local snack food company. The boys' teacher, Mr. Garvey, is perhaps overly determined to win the $50,000 prize for their school. As the puzzle teams scurry around town, tracking clues and solving riddles, some are soon hampered by a secret saboteur that they suspect must be connected to one of the competing teams. The clever contest puzzles are included for the reader to work on along with a few Winston invents along the way. Answers are provided in the back of the book for those who are impatient or need help. The flat tires, moved signs, and stolen equipment quickly make everyone suspicious of everyone else and many likely suspects appear in the plot. By the conclusion, Winston is concerned about Mr. Garvey's sense of fair play, and the two eventually find they must choose between doing what is right or winning. The breakneck pace of the first book is renewed here but with a bit more danger. The plot and puzzles are still reasonable and suitable for the upper elementary/middle school reader. Winston is a likeable hero and his story is entertaining and presents a moral about good sportsmanship. Those who have read the first book will surely want to read this one as well. Reviewer: Kevin Beach
Children's Literature - Kathleen Karr
Eric Berlin's sequel to The Puzzling World of Winston Breen finds our hero and his pals, Mal and Jake, on another puzzling quest. This time they must win an all day word-gaming scavenger hunt sponsored by Dmitri Simon, the local potato chip king. Given Winston's genius, the results ought to be in the bag, right? Unfortunately, the event is school sponsored, and the guys are saddled with math teacher Mr. Garvey (a man of little imagination and less wit) as chaperone, not to mention the antics of fanatics from competing schools—all anxious to win the $50,000 prize. The modest amount of skullduggery invested in the plot does help but unless the reader is truly a puzzle person, having the action stop every few pages for the insertion of yet another rebus or math game does crimp the story. Alternately, if one approaches the book as a set of puzzles with story attached, it becomes considerably more successful. Solutions and additional puzzles may be found in the back matter. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr
School Library Journal
Gr 4–7—The whiz kid from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (Putnam, 2007) returns to reason through his second mystery. Winston and his two friends, Mal and Jake, are sent to represent Walter Fredericks Junior High in a daylong puzzle competition sponsored by the eccentric owner of Simon's Snack Foods. Their teacher, Mr. Garvey, is determined to win the $50,000 prize for their school and constantly chides the boys to take the day seriously. As Winston's group scrambles around town tracking clues and solving riddles, they are waylaid by a saboteur they suspect is connected to one of the competing schools. They also encounter ethical questions: Is it okay to bend the rules to win? In the end, Winston and Mr. Garvey face a moral dilemma and emerge with a better understanding of one another. Berlin refreshes traditional themes, including the importance of good sportsmanship, with oodles of mind-bogglers for readers' enjoyment. While some puzzles are integral to the plot, others can be solved at a later point (an answer key and additional puzzles are appended). The interlocking mystery contains all the information needed for its unraveling. The subplots are well integrated and the dialogue is snappy. Suggest this fine brainteaser to fans of Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery (Random, 2008) or Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society (Little, Brown, 2007).—Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT
Kirkus Reviews
When a local snack-food manufacturer creates a puzzle contest to benefit a school, Winston Breen and his two best friends represent their middle school, solving his six elaborate puzzles and an unexpected seventh: exposing a cheater. Like its predecessor, this second adventure in The Puzzling World of Winston Breen has a number of extra puzzles included in the narrative and more at the end, along with the answers. And as before, there is a strong thematic emphasis on cooperation as the boys cope with adults who seem to value winning over good sportsmanship. The cheater's actions introduce surprising violence into an otherwise wholesome world. The puzzles mostly involve numbers or letters and vary in difficulty; some will be quite challenging to puzzle-loving readers, as they were to Winston and his friends. The pace is suspenseful but allows for pauses for problem-solving. The joy for both contestants and readers of this brain-teasing mystery will be in the process. (Mystery. 9-12)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780142416372
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 5/13/2010
  • Pages: 256
  • Sales rank: 127,939
  • Age range: 9 - 12 Years
  • Product dimensions: 7.94 (w) x 5.14 (h) x 0.71 (d)

Meet the Author

Eric Berlin

Eric Berlin creates puzzles for all ages, from kids to adults (his crosswords appear often in The New York Times). He is a member of the National Puzzlers' League and enjoys creating puzzle events for schools and other groups. He lives in Milford, Connecticut, with his wife and two children.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 34 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(19)

4 Star

(7)

3 Star

(2)

2 Star

(3)

1 Star

(3)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 35 Customer Reviews

  • Posted February 5, 2012

    The Best Book EVER!!!!

    This book was the best I finished it in 2 days and on the first night I didn't go to bed till 11:00pm. I ordered the 1st book I'am going to see how that is :)

    4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 2, 2012

    The puzzles of potato chips

    It is great especially since it is a nutmeg

    4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 18, 2011

    Shaylynn gruenberg loved this book

    This book is filled with suspense creativity and of course........puzzles. Not kidding theres actual puzzles throughout the book and extra ones in the back. Theres also answers so you can solve them yourself them yourself but the important answers are answer a tad later. Ok on to the actual story. So winsteen breen finds himself in a big puzzle contest and picks his friends to be his teamates.However his not so fav teacher is picked to be the " chaperone" and every thing seems to go wrong.To add to all the craziness the a cheater in the competition and he is determined to win. This book will have you frazzeled dismaed and terrificly happy.I completly recommend this book to anyone and everyone aldults and kids.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 10, 2012

    Love

    I love this book i have read it many times to my students off my nook they enjoyed it

    1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 11, 2012

    Great!!!!!

    The only problem is the the answers might say page 230 but there only about 160 pages

    utherwise is an amazing book

    1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 25, 2011

    ?........

    ?.........

    1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 8, 2011

    Mysteries and Suspense!

    I am in fourth grade and I love this book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 28, 2010

    If your a puzzle lover than read this book along with the first.

    The novel "the puzzling world of Winston Breen: the potato chip puzzles" by Eric Berlin is about a boy named Winston who loves doing Puzzles. The story takes place during Winston's summer vacation One-day Winston's school was invited to a puzzle contest. The school principal gave Winston a card. He needed solve a puzzle to figure out what the card said. On the day of the puzzle contest [which was the first day of summer vacation] Winston's puzzle team went to Simons snack food, [the host of the puzzle contest] for the rules and the location of the first puzzle. The information was on the computer that Simon gave them. When Winston's team was trying to leave the Simons snack food parking lot their car got a flat tire, which puts them behind. When they got to the first of six puzzles they partnered up with the greater oaks team to solve the puzzle but for the second puzzle they partnered up with the demilla academy team. When they came out of the corn maze, [the second puzzle] only Winston's team got the answer right and Demilla academy had to do the corn maze all over again. When Winston's team finished the third puzzle they figured out that there was a cheater and told every other team about it and 2 teams quit because of this cheater. Winston called ray [a retired policeman] with Mr. Garvey's cell phone to ask him to track a mysterious phone call earlier in the Week. The mysterious phone call asked if Winston was going to the puzzle contest. A few hours later ray called back saying it was Brendon root [a player on the west meadow team] that called him. Winston's team broke their computer by accident but when they got their answer they had to submit it on the greater oaks computer and promised to give them half of the money if they won but it was to late. The winner of the contest was the west meadow team but the cheater was the teacher of the west meadow team. The west meadow team did not get the money because their teacher cheated. Winston's team won the contest but got half since they promised to give the other half to the greater oaks team. Every team but the 2 teams that quit went to MR. Simon's barbeque The book had many positives and negatives. The first thing that I liked in the book is that it had a great theme to it. The next thing that I liked was that it had lots of interesting characters. The final thing I liked was how it gave puzzles for the reader to solve. I did have things in the book that I didn't like too. The first thing I didn't like was that there was a cheater that gave flat tires, and other bad things. Another reason is Mr. Garvey wanted to put 2 of his math experts in the puzzle contest instead of Winston's friends to complete the puzzles faster so they could win. The last thing I didn't like was that the author did not give more information about Winston jake and mal like age, grade, etc. those were some of the many positives and negatives in this book. I would recommend this book to any puzzle lover. One reason is because the 3 friends are very interesting. Another reason is you will not want to stop reading the novel because the ending will surprise you. The final reason is the theme of the story is very interesting because it is set at varies locations. Some of the many similar novels I would recommend are the golly whopper games by Jody Feldman, the puzzling world of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin, the green magician puzzle by Susan Pearson and Gioia Fiammenghi, and finally the westing games.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 21, 2013

    This book

    Ate me out

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2013

    Great book

    This book totally deserves 5 stars, amazing with redherrings and puzzles that make u go out of your mind to solve them, i think that u, especally if u r a puzzle lover will enjoy this book

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 24, 2013

    ?

    Most people said that this book stinks. Why?

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 11, 2013

    This book stinks like doo doo

    This is the worst book i have ever read. It stinks like doo doo. It is not action packed like the description says. It is very predictable. IT IS NOT WORTH YOUR VALUABLE TIME OR MONEY!!!!!!!!

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2012

    O.k.

    A good book but kind of confusing. But i liked the puzzles in the back and the riddles where fun to figure out and ask people.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 5, 2012

    Awsome Book

    This was an awsome book. # 1

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 6, 2012

    Yeah

    This book is freakin awesome as heck

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 7, 2012

    P

    HII!!!!! Good book, but i got bored at some parts. PS. Did i mention *******HHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!********* :-)

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 24, 2012

    Hi

    This book is ok if u like puzzles then i would read it if u do not like puzzles then i would not read it

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 10, 2011

    The potato chip puzzles

    This download is not working so this is a commplaint.

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted April 21, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    Skeleton Creek (Skeleton Creek Series #1)
    The Puzzling World of Winston Breen
    Wright 3
    Chasing Vermeer
    The Calder Game

    Yet another fantastic mystery for puzzle lovers!

    This follow up to "The Puzzling World of Winston Breen" is fantastic! There are puzzles throughout the story that are fun to solve. The story contains great action, characters, mystery, and fun. A must read!!!

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 28, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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