Pentomino Puzzles: 365 Teasers to Keep Your Brain in Shape Hardcover-spiral – July 5, 2011

I bought this book on a whim. My mother was a math teacher and my childhood was filled with playing with math puzzles and games. When I saw this book, I decided to purchase it for my 8 and 9 year old kids. We all had a ball sitting around the coffee table and trying to make all the shapes! It has turned into a quick "rainy-day" sure-fire kid-pleasing activity. After a couple of weeks, I took it to my office and sat it on a side table at work. It was amazing to see grown men fascinated with trying to fit the pentomino pieces into different shapes. Buy it for the kids, but realize the adults will get just as much fun out of it! My only negative comment is that I could not figure out how to get the Pentominos out of the clear container. After a few frustrating minutes of not trying to tear the box, I figured it out.

I got this for my 9 year old and it was way too hard for him. My husband has fun playing with it though. The quality is great and the puzzles fun!

I bought this for my husband who has Alzheimer's and he really enjoys using them. Sometimes he tries to build the enclosed puzzles and other times he just enjoys making his own designs. We brought these out during a recent visit from my niece, nephew and grand nephew, and all of us loved trying to figure out the puzzles. Frustrating sometimes, but addictive! You can work on them alone or have fun working with a group.I would highly recommend this for everyone of any age or ability. It is especially good for dementia patients as they often want to have something to occupy their minds and keep their hands busy.

Please note ! A nice set of hollow plastic pentomino pieces come with the book. The pieces are well finishend and accurate. Twelve different colors are quite pretty. The "I" piece measures 16mm x 16 mm x 80 mm, with the other pieces exactly in proportion. There are 96 pages in the book. Only 6 pages are all text. The other pages are nicely printed puzzles (365) first, followed by solutions to all of them. My granddaughter and I will have fun with this book for years. With its spiral binding it lays wonderfully flat.

The puzzles in this book are quite difficult and even as an adult I had a lot of issues with this. I could see it being really frustrating for a child.

My mother is getting up there in years and she loves playing brain games to stay sharp. Got her this for Christmas and heard nothing but good things. She said many of the puzzles are quite challenging, so this may not be for a younger crowd, but for teens through retirees I'd say this is a solid choice.

I have always considered myself somewhat smart and well-educated as I have a Masters degree. In additionI have spent much time quilting and am used to looking at patterns and breaking them down into smaller, more workable pieces. However, these puzzles were quite difficult. I got very frustrated after trying the first puzzle at least half a dozen times. In order to even put the pieces back into the carrying case I had to create a "cheat sheet". I would have liked more hints as to how to master the puzzles and maybe even some diagrams for solutions. I will persevere but they are very difficult and anyone buying them should take this into consideration.

We recently discovered pentominos and we love them. This book is a perfect extension of the little activity book that came with our set. We use this for fun, in homeschool and would be great in a classroom (especially for the visual spatial learner).