captainjemima's review
2.0
'Agent Arthur's Desert Challenge' is a book in the series of Usborne Puzzle Adventures books. I get these from my local library to try to relive some childhood nostalgia about reading these puzzle books when I was young. I love these sorts of puzzles, they remind me of a young person's version of the 'Broken Sword' PC games, which had mystery upon mystery to solve in a point-and-click manner. Unfortunately, this is the third Agent Arthur book I've read and I can honestly say I don't want to read another. I only read this because I had already borrowed it from the library.
This time, Arthur, who works for the crime-fighting Action Agency, is sent to the desert town of El Taco for his next assignment. He and his dog Sleuth are supposed to meet Agent Andrea, but she has already been targeted for kidnapping by the evil Spider Organization. Arthur dashes off to find their secret hideout and try to foil their inevitably evil plans. The story itself was interesting enough and, of course, ended happily.
Along the way, readers solve a puzzle on each double-page spread. These range from following mazes and cracking codes, to being generally observant. One thing I have noticed with the 'Agent Arthur' series of puzzle books is that many of the puzzles are about working out a secret code. Sometimes that code requires substituting each letter of the alphabet for a symbol, or perhaps swapping letters or words around, or even putting extra letters in every other word. When I see these word-codes, I immediately don't want to solve them. From experience, I know that they're more of a headache than they're worth, so I just read the decoded message in the answer pages at the back. I also refuse to try to work out where the hero is located on a map, when we're given his speed of travel, how far he travelled, and the map cleverly indicates north and also the scale (e.g. 10 miles per inch of map). I don't even know how to work that out - nor do I think that would be fun for a young or teenage person to work out. Thankfully there was only one of those this time. The other puzzles were more agreeable.
This one still can't beat 'Castle of Intrigue', which is the last puzzle book I enjoyed.
This time, Arthur, who works for the crime-fighting Action Agency, is sent to the desert town of El Taco for his next assignment. He and his dog Sleuth are supposed to meet Agent Andrea, but she has already been targeted for kidnapping by the evil Spider Organization. Arthur dashes off to find their secret hideout and try to foil their inevitably evil plans. The story itself was interesting enough and, of course, ended happily.
Along the way, readers solve a puzzle on each double-page spread. These range from following mazes and cracking codes, to being generally observant. One thing I have noticed with the 'Agent Arthur' series of puzzle books is that many of the puzzles are about working out a secret code. Sometimes that code requires substituting each letter of the alphabet for a symbol, or perhaps swapping letters or words around, or even putting extra letters in every other word. When I see these word-codes, I immediately don't want to solve them. From experience, I know that they're more of a headache than they're worth, so I just read the decoded message in the answer pages at the back. I also refuse to try to work out where the hero is located on a map, when we're given his speed of travel, how far he travelled, and the map cleverly indicates north and also the scale (e.g. 10 miles per inch of map). I don't even know how to work that out - nor do I think that would be fun for a young or teenage person to work out. Thankfully there was only one of those this time. The other puzzles were more agreeable.
This one still can't beat 'Castle of Intrigue', which is the last puzzle book I enjoyed.
More...