All kids love solving puzzles, and that is exactly what this book is full of. "Still More Stories to Solve" is a book full of 14 different short stories that end in a riddle or question the reader has to solve. The answer is always on the page behind it, so the suspense is still there when trying to figure out the answer. When I was reading this book I loved pondering about the possible answers and even asked my family members if they knew the answer to the story. This book would be great to read to kids, especially as a way to end the day in a fun and educational way. The stories get the students thinking and using their inferencing skills. ( )

This is a compendium of fourteen folktales from around the world which each contain riddles to be solved. I chose this book because I was least familiar with folktales category, so the I selected four stories to make six total readings for the week.

The first story I chose was "A Clever Song," which was about this old blind man who buried one hundred coins near a tree. A neighboring farmer saw him do this. The old man cried when he noticed they were stolen and went to sing at the market for entertainment to start a new collection of money. The farmer coveted the new coins too. To ensure the blind man also buried the new ones by the tree, he put back the first set of coins. Little did the farmer know the blind man already knew that they had been missing, found them, and buried it all in a new spot unbeknownst to the now coin-less farmer. This is an Italian folktale which can be found in other collections from Spain, Japan, and Egypt.

The second story I chose was "Hen's Observation." A hen sat atop a pile of wheat eating all the day long. A sly jackal, who was notorious for playing tricks, repeatedly told the hen to come down. The hen refused. Finally, the smiling jackal told the hen that it was a peace day among all the animals, that everyone had agreed not to eat their typical prey. Then suspicious hen then told the not-so-clever jackal that a pack of big dogs were coming, and the jackal quickly scurried off. The hen knew the jackal was definitely lying. This story is from Africa but also in Cambodian, Scottish, Russian, Uruguayan, and Native American cultures.

The third story I read was "The Basket Weaver." This story was about a man telling the king a riddle regarding the weaver making only one coin per day, all the while paying a debt, investing in the future, and feeding eight mouths. When the weaver explained to the king what he meant, the king made the weaver promise not to tell anyone the answer to his riddle so that the king could bet his guards about it. After substantial bribery, the weaver willingly explained to the guards how he accomplished so much from a coin per day. When they answered it to the king, he knew the weaver had told them. Consequently, he ordered the weaver's imprisonment. The king asked why the weaver did it since he instructed him not to tell anyone until he saw the king's face. The weaver responded that he had-- on the coins with which he was bribed! This story, as mentioned in it, is from Greece. Variants are also in Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, the Cape Verde Islands, and some parts of East Africa.

The last story I read was "A Handful of Mustard Seed." This one is sweet. A lady's baby died before she was one year old. The lady asked Buddha for a medicine that would revive her baby. Buddha said a handful of mustard seeds would do the trick. There was a catch however. None of mustard seeds were to come from a house in which a parent, spouse, or child had passed. After months of searching, the woman returned to Buddha empty handed but less broken hearted. Why? After sharing all the stories of heartache from losing loved ones, the mom knew she wasn't alone in her sadness and began to heal, which was the best medicine Buddha could provide.
This story is retold Buddhist story. At one point this story was translated from the country of Myanmar, or Burma. ( )

This is a book of short stories. in every story something has to solved. It tells you what the situation is and the outcome and how the character solved the problem. The stories kind of wity. I could read the story to the class and the outcome and have them figure out how it worked. ( )

This book is really just a continuation of the series Shannon started in Stories to Solve. Read one and you've the idea and quality of them all. Which isn't always a bad thing - since these are brain teaser stories, where you try to solve some central problem or question to the story, there's no need for innovation. Shannon is simply offering us more mysteries. Again, he uses folktales as a vehicle for his puzzlers. A fun series, best shared with friends. ( )

Contents: The line; Two horses; Never set foot; Hen's observation; The agreement; Last words; The basket weaver; Lion's advisors; A lesson well learned; A clever song; The secret spear; Family history; The Brahmin's wish; A handful of mustard seed.
Summary: Fourteen brief folktales in which there is a mystery or problem that the reader is invited to solve before the resolution is presented.