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Product Details: What builds self-esteem in an eager young learner? Parents and child experts agree, lasting confidence comes from a child’s accomplishments — from winning small challenges and mastering new skills. With Puzzle Buzz, even the youngest child learns to tackle activities independently, and puzzle-solving skills begin to grow.
MSRP: $5.49 per book plus $2.45 shipping and handling; comes in shipments of 2 books every 4 weeks
Personal Experience: As I mentioned in yesterday’s review for High Five, Highlights has been with me for a long time and has a lasting impression. The chance to work with them for this year’s gift guide was kind of a weird childhood dream come true. They made my day with Puzzle Buzz… and Xander’s too, of course! 
For me, Puzzle Buzz is like getting all of my favorite things from Highlights magazine in one big book. Xander shares my love of all things puzzle, so this was an ideal for us to spend fun time together. It has all of those classic puzzles, seek and find, mazes, and spot the difference activities are combined… with stickers! These are big and vibrantly colored books packed full of everything a puzzle-lover could want.
I really enjoyed how much more engaged in the books Xander was thanks to those stickers. Basic circling of objects is fun, but for a young kid the bright stickers make it extra-fun. The challenge of finding the object on a black and white line drawing was interesting. It made him think a bit more, because he couldn’t just look for the same colors… he had to really look at the shapes of things. He struggled a bit with this type of puzzle at first, but by the time we explored the third book he was becoming a pro.
All of the puzzles were educational while being fun. I was really happy to have more opportunity to work with Xander on spotting differences between two images, because this is a weak spot for him. He really enjoyed the jigsaw-type puzzles where you place a puzzle piece sticker in the correct spot on the image. I think a few more stickers on this activity would be wonderful… Xander finished them too quickly.
I do think the price is about right per book, but the shipping added could make it a bit of a deal breaker for tight budgets. It annoys me when subscription-based products are priced by book with shipping as an extra. I wish more would just say that you get a shipment that will cost you x-number of dollars every four weeks. Simplify my life! I would love to see an option for single book shipments for those of us pinching pennies a bit that would still love to subscribe.
Pros: Like a greatest hits of Highlights magazine. Shipped every 4 weeks for convenient fun. Big, quality books with vibrant colors and lots of stickers.
Cons: Would like to see them just price it as a set and not by book… I find this tactic annoying.
Be sure to visit Highlights’ Holiday Gift Guide, too!
Overall Rating
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