Month: July 2024

made by Pomegranate ~ artist Charley Harper ~ 1,000 pieces

Three of us worked this puzzle together, all in one afternoon. I didn’t think to start taking photos until we were well underway (plus I thought my companions might find it weird). The pictures are also a bit wonky, because we didn’t put the border together first, so there was nothing for me to visually align my camera on. My sister did the sky parts, her partner the transition edges and larger cacti, I did the little one with yellow flowers and all the red and pink bits. We collaborated on the rest, all hands in. Background and edges- all black- came last, and were the trickiest, with lots of tedious try-every-piece-until-one-fits, after we’d sorted them by shape. Quite a few false fits  had to be found and relocated, but we were finally all done by dinner time!

My favorite details: the spotted skunk doing a handstand

and the roadrunner that’s caught a lizard

Completed on 7/20/24. Final size 16 x 32″.

borrowed from my sister

by Brian Lies

Bats fly out of their cave and go to visit the beach. They do all the things anyone does on a trip to the beach- except in the middle of the night and they have to hustle home by daylight. Some things were the same as humans might- burying each other in the sand, surfing on the waves, roasting marshamallows over a fire- but with a different twist either because it was bats (they used their wings as sails, for example) or because it was night instead of day. I don’t know what else to say about this one, but it was cute!

Completed on 7/19/24. Borrowed from my sister.

Rating: 3/5
34 pages, 2006

Toot and Puddle

by Holly Hobby

Toot travels far away to a wild jungle to see a fantastic plant- and comes back home with an illness. Some virus that turns him blue. Puddle and Opal hustle him off to bed and treat him with teas and consult various doctors but nothing helps Toot get better. Until Opal does some research of her own and finds out that a stinkhorn fungus growing locally in a huge old lilac thicket might do the trick. They collect it and brew it and Toot drinks it down- voila! All better.

I dunno- I used to really be thrilled by the Toot and Puddle books, but this one had a few things that put me slightly off. First, the title makes you assume the book would be about Puddle missing Toot while he’s gone (or Toot wishing Puddle was accompanying him on the trip)- like the very first book. But it wasn’t. More than half is about what happens when Toot gets back home. Then there’s the fact that another Toot and Puddle book is about one of the pigs (I forget which) being depressed, so he’s blue. And that book is all about how his friend is trying to cheer him up again. Having this book also where one of the pigs turns blue (but this time from a virus) was just odd. In fact when I was describing to my sister which one I read, she was all confused, and so was I! I think having some symptom other than a skin color change from the virus might have made things more distinct? If they need to be. Most readers this probably wouldn’t bother them in the slightest.

Completed on 7/19/24. Borrowed from my sister.

Rating: 3/5
32 pages, 2005

More opinions: Book Loons
anyone else?

made by Pigment and Hue ~ photographer unknown ~ 140 pieces

My second tiny puzzle. Same brand, size and so on, done on the same flight. This one was a bit more difficult, with only two major color groupings- the golden brown deer and the green grass background. It slowed me down with careful deliberation, but I didn’t mind at all.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to read for hours on end as I used to do on a long flight, so I was curious to try puzzling and delighted to find it worked out. Why did I never do this before? It was quite relaxing and kept my mind occupied, a great way to pass the time (I am unable to actually sleep on flights anymore).

My only issue with these little MiniPix puzzles is (aside from the very lightness of the pieces and loose fit) that the sleeve holding the box lid on can be quite a snug fit. When the flight was ready to land, I had just finished this one and suddenly felt rushed to box it up again (though I could well have left it in the assembly tray, I don’t know why I didn’t automatically do that). I couldn’t easily slide the sleeve off the box again, and tore it. Later I was able to re-glue the stock paper, and file down a bit of plastic ridge on the box, so the sleeve would still hold snug but slide off easier next time. Still, a very enjoyable solution to doing a favorite activity when you are bored sitting in cramped place for hours on end! and don’t want to stare at a screen.

Completed on 7/19/24. Final size 7 x 5″.

Edit add 8/10/24: just to show how awful the photos came out on the flight. This second slideshow has a few, the few that came out halfway decent, but really they’re terrible! So that’s why, same as the Monarch Butterfly, I re-did this puzzle in good lighting by a window at my sister’s, just so I could take new pictures ha ha.

bought new at gift shop

made by Pigment and Hue ~ photographer unknown ~ 140 pieces

Tiny puzzle! From the Minipix series. I’ve had travel versions of books for many years on my Kindle, but this is the first time I’ve had a travel puzzle. It’s just so very small! The entire box fits in the palm of my hand, and the pieces are the size of my thumbnail.

It comes in a nice little plastic box, the lid has no hinge so holds in place with the picture sleeve. Which also has info on the back about the wildlife (I got this at a gift shop in a national park). The whole finished puzzle is only 5 x 7″. I repurposed a flat box that once held an ipad, cut down to just half an inch depth, used it as a tray for assembly. I could flip the lid over and put under the tray, one to hold the puzzle in progress and what I was immediately working on, the rest for all the other pieces. It worked beautifully. I did two of these small puzzles on a five-hour flight.

Only problem I had was the pieces fit together loosely, and were so small and lightweight, that when I blew to get rid of some puzzle dust, it disarranged the border I’d just assembled! I even lost one piece onto the floor, without even noticing it. My neighbor retrieved it for me with an amused little smile. 

I did attempt to take progress shots, but the lighting and camera angle on the plane were terrible. So while relaxing at my destination the next day, just for fun I did both mini puzzles all over again, in the same assembly order (though my brain wanted to automatically try it differently- what if I put together the pale leaf ones first?) – so I had to consciously choose the same way to show you. 

Completed on 7/19/24.

Edit add 8/20/24: the few photos I took on the flight, that actually came out halfway decent. If you flip through the slideshow and pause (hovering the cursor) at the right one, you can see how close I got in duplicating the assembly sequence again for pics.

bought new at gift shop

by Emily Tetri

Tiger has a monster that lives under her bed- and the monster is her friend. Monster fends off Tiger’s nightmares so she can sleep soundly. But one night a nightmare comes that overwhelms the monster. Tiger and her monster have to work together to find a way to deal with this one- it’s bigger than both of them. Loved the illustrations. And the solution. A great story and message. Don’t want to say more because really you have to read this one! It’s in a graphic novel format- seems like a lot of pages, but they turn quickly.

Completed on 7/19/24. Borrowed from my sister.

Rating: 4/5
64 pages, 2018

made by Ceaco ~ artist Thomas Kinkade ~ 550 pieces

Thin pieces with those roundish shapes I expect now from this puzzle brand. For a picture with soft edges and colors fading one into the other, I found it more relaxing and meditative to put together, than frustrating and tedious as they often do. I did like the dirt path, with patches of light/shadow and the puddles in ruts, reflecting sky. Did this puzzle once and then traded it away a week later at a library swap.

Completed on 7/17/24. I’m a little behind on posting again.

Final size 19.25 x 19.25″.

a thrift store find

by Glen Rounds

A long time ago when I was a kid, I read a little book about a colt born on a range that was blind, but survived and learned to do well by closely listening and using its other senses. I remember being skeptical: could a horse really live out in the wild like that, but there was a note at the back that the author had actually known of such a blind horse. That made the story stick in my memory.

This book continues that one, now the blind horse lives on a ranch. It’s been taught to ride by a kid, and there’s a dog devotedly attached to it, that carefully leads it around places. On the first few pages, horse thieves come in the night. When much later they realize the horse can’t see, they figure he’s worthless to sell, and set him loose. The dog had run after and snuck aboard the truck, so now he’s out there with the horse too. (Thieves couldn’t get rid of the dog though they tried). The rest of the story is about how this odd pair survives on the dry range while trying to make their way back home. Blocked by fences, and later by the threat of wildfire. Encountering coyotes, badgers, the dangers of broken fences and traps left for wolves. Once the horse gets stuck down in a wash after a rainstorm. The horse often runs into accidents because it can’t see obstacles, but can always find grazing whereas the dog is always near starving, being a poor hunter. He gets a little better near the end- catching hares and mice or finding bird eggs and a few carcasses (though they’re mostly so well-picked-over there’s nothing left to eat). On one occasion he steals meals from another ranch’s dogs. Eventually the two do make it home alive, to the amazement and joy of the rancher and the kid who had trained the blind horse.

Best part of the story was reading all the details how the horse could safely (for the most part) make its way about, and the particular care the dog took to watch out for it, and all the little natural things about the environment and wildlife. Sage grouse and pronghorns. Owls and prairie dogs. For such a little book it was quite interesting, especially the animal behavior.

Completed on 7/18/24.

Rating: 3/5
96 pages, 1948

Lucy and Andy Neanderthal

by Jeffrey Brown

Like the previous two books, this story about a Neanderthal family in the stone age shows what their daily life and challenges might have been like, and also how much like us they probably were- concerned about their family members, annoyed by younger siblings, preferring to have fun than doing boring tasks, etc. Andy and his sister Lucy in this story are still friends with the kids from group of humans, but they now also encounter another small group of Neanderthals, who act friendly in a suspicious way. Our family struggles with getting along in close quarters during rainy spells, the kids train for hunts by some of them pretending to be prey animals, they find dinosaur bones and speculate what the huge skull might have belonged to- and collect some specimens to drag back to their cave. Just because it’s cool. They have to keep things clean (and get a few very short haircuts- making a few characters almost unrecognizable-) to control head lice, try to find ways to make gathering food plants easier, encounter a wooly rhino (and accidentally lead it too close to home), mourn the death of one kid’s pet frog (leading into a discussion of what Neanderthal burial rights might have consisted of, if they had any), and find clever ways to prevent that other Neanderthal group from stealing their stuff. All parts of the story lead into two or three-page spreads of present-day scientist characters discussing things to show the reader what current knowledge we have on the subject, and the end of the book has even more pages of facts. Oddly though, there are a few more bits of storyline interspersed in those fact pages. I didn’t quite get that placement.

Another thing that slightly bugged me through the whole series, was that the Neanderthals didn’t look much different from the humans. Even though the characters kept saying how the humans were taller and had longer arms and legs, really they all had the exact same stature in the pictures. Just that the humans had longer faces, but otherwise it was hard to tell the species apart if you didn’t know from the storyline.

Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 7/14/24.

Rating: 3/5
208 pages, 2018

Lucy and Andy Neanderthal

by Jeffrey Brown

Much the same as the previous book in this series, about a family of Neanderthals, with the two kids as main characters. It’s winter now, so they have to work to stay warm, and things are complicated by all the extra people in their cave, since they took in this group of humans. It’s supposed to be temporary, and they’re helping the humans look for their own new cave to live in- with lots of very specific requirements to meet the needs. Andy keeps reminding the other kids and his parents how much he wants their visitors to move on. He squabbles with the other kids, gets picked on sometimes, tries to make jokes, and continues attempting to impress the older girl. Still begging to go along on hunts and show off his skills, but when he does finally confront a dangerous animal, it’s very frightening. The kids learn rules about what to do if they meet a cave bear, play in the snow, draw maps on the cave walls, help with butchering animals and making clothes from the hides, listen to scary stories, go exploring and walk across a glacier, make music by drumming on things and playing a bone flute, and argue about whether or not Lucy (the sister) is psychic (which I felt was lame). They go on an excursion to the seashore where the kids gather and trade shells, and later make decorative things to wear with them. The kids organize a ‘battle of the bands’, which felt like too modern of an idea to me, but I get how that would appeal to kids- showing that people back then were interested in the same things- approval of their peers, enjoying music, showing off their skills. Through the whole storyline, one of the humans is pregnant, and at the end she gives birth (the kids all leave the cave on a hike, to avoid the noise and give her some privacy). Just like in the previous book, there are pages between chapters where modern scientist characters have conversations while they discover things that reflect what was told in the story, and explain what parts are factual, and what parts made up. The final pages have even more of this, but it kind of diverged into a whole spiel about climate change.

Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 7/13/24.

Rating: 3/5
220 pages, 2017

DISCLAIMER:

All books reviewed on this site are owned by me, or borrowed from the public library. Exceptions are a very occasional review copy sent to me by a publisher or author, as noted. Receiving a book does not influence my opinion or evaluation of it

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