I have long been a fan of The Critical Thinking Company and have used a great many of their products. I am always happy when they come out with new products to continue to stimulate the mind and good thinking skills. This is one of their newest products in the "Mind Builders" series. This book for grades 5-12 has 101 pages of puzzles, all with a social studies or history theme.

Each page has two puzzles. The first puzzle is a true paragraph with a mysterious element. The student must read the paragraph and then make an inference from the information given, showing which statement they were using to support their conclusion. The second puzzle on the page is a word puzzle that requires deductive reasoning to solve. The puzzles wouldn't take too long to do, and the information presented in them is interesting.

The best part about the book is that the answer key is in the back! This is one of the advantages of books and curriculum from The Critical Thinking Company, because sometimes the puzzles are too hard even for mom to figure out!

I usually try to find one critical thinking piece of curriculum each year to round out our academics, and I'm thrilled to be able to use this one with my sixth grader. The book retails for $18.99. There is also a Mind Builders book with a science theme for the same age range. 

Product review by Kim Kargbo, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February 2010