The Great Global Puzzle Challenge - Softcover

Kirkus ReviewsGifford's language is crisp and engagingly friendly as he proceeds to explain the book's game format . . . The canny sense of place the book imparts and its encouragment to let Google Earth guide you to other realms (both terrestrial and celestial) [is overwhelming]. Publishers WeeklyIntegrating print with electronic media, each spread of this interactive time-jumping, globe-hopping book contains digitally rendered illustrations of a world location, along with corresponding Google Earth coordinates. . . . In addition to browsing the locations online, the book offers numerous puzzles, games, and seek-and-find questions. Kirkus ReviewsGifford's language is crisp and engagingly friendly as he proceeds to explain the book's game format . . . The canny sense of place the book imparts and its encouragment to let Google Earth guide you to other realms (both terrestrial and celestial) [is overwhelming].

Each spread focuses on one destination, and the intricate artwork gives readers a visual flavour of the place, with masses to look at and discover the more you look. There are links from one place to the next - historical, geographical, natural history or just simple proximity - for example, there is an ancient Egyptian obelisk in NY's central park, with two sister obelisks in Paris and London. Find the one in the Central Park using Google[trademark] Earth co-ordinates and it gives you the clue to where you will be going next. The pyramids at the Louvre in Paris will whisk you off to the temples of Ancient Egypt, then find a connection from the Colosseum of Ancient Rome to the hot plains of Tanzania that team with wildlife, from flocks of flamingos to herds of wildebeest to prides of lions. And so on...In each location you have to find a souvenir to take with you. You will also need to solve a puzzle with the help of Google[trademark] Earth to collect co-ordinates for your final secret location - again on Google[trademark] Earth. For instance, the puzzle tells you to visit the Statue of Liberty on Google[trademark] Earth and to count the number of points on its crown. This number is one of the co-ordinates you need to find your final destination on Google[trademark] Earth at the end of the book.