We are big puzzle people in my family and usually have one going at any given time. So, when I have the opportunity to check out these three puzzles by Sandra Boynton, I jumped at the chance. What fun and perfect for the hot, rainy summer we have had in NYC this year.
This is the first puzzle we did. It has 300 pieces and is called Hippo Birdie Two Ewe and is based on Sandra Boynton's wonderful and lasting birthday card. It's the perfect gift to give you someone who loves puzzles for their birthday, or really for any reason. It perfect for kids who are just beginning to get into puzzles. I'm an August birthday, and did this puzzle on my birthday with one of the kids, and it turned out to be lost of fun and a great opportunity to talk about puns. Also, this puzzle was NOT missing a piece, but the missing piece somehow ended up inside a book, and I think little hands had something to do with it. The finished puzzle is 19" x 26" and I would rate this easy to do for age 8+
This is the second Sandra Boynton puzzle we did. It's called Puzzle Complaints and is also a lot of fun to put together. We found the putting the frame together was pretty each since you just put the words in the right order, then putting the complaints together was somewhat easy, but a few give us a good workout. It's the complaining chickens that really presented a challenge. I didn't get as much help from any of the kids for this puzzle once I started to work on the chickens, but they did drift over once in a while as I did worked on it. And in all fairness, they probably were too young for it, but I did get some adult help in the form of my Kiddo, finally home from living in China. And, yes, I may have uttered a complaint or two while working on this one. This is a 500 piece puzzle and measures 26" x 19" and I would rate the difficulty intermediate, so age 12+
This is the third and last puzzle I did and I had lots of help from my Kiddo, which was good because this is the most difficult of the three Sandra Boynton puzzles, but it was still a lot of fun to do. It is a 1,000 piece puzzle called Hidden Cows and sure, there are lots of obvious cows, but if you look closely, you will see some many more. You'll also see some visiting chickens and a couple of pigs. Again, we began with the frame, and the lettering at the top of the puzzle. And that was the easy part. This took us a little longer, but it was worth it in the end. And yes, there is a piece missing on one of the cows and this time it was my fault. I found the missing piece in a pocket. How it got there is beyond me. Hidden Cows measures 26" x 19" and I would rate the difficulty intermediate, but for age 14+
Now, all I have to do it is learn how to take a better picture of the puzzles I do.
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If you are looking for some good, wholesome family fun, you might want to give one or all of these puzzles a whirl.
About Sandra Boynton
Sandra Boynton is a beloved American cartoonist, children's author, songwriter, and highly sporadic short film director. Starting with the 1977 publication of Hippos Go Berserk!, Boynton has written and illustrated over sixty children's books and eight general audience books, including five New York Times bestsellers. Her renowned books include Barnyard Dance!, Snuggle Puppy!, Belly Button Book!, EEK! Halloween!, But Not the Hippopotamus, and The Going to Bed Book. More than 70 million of her books have been sold - "mostly to friends and family," she says. Boynton has also written and produced six albums of unconventional children's music, which include performances by Brian Wilson, Brad Paisley, Kevin Kline, Kacey Musgraves, Blues Traveler, Alison Krauss, Meryl Streep, Spin Doctors, Davy Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Patti LuPone, Neil Sedake, and "Weird Al" Yankovic in a duet with Kate Winslet. Three of Boynton's albums have been certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold), and Philadelphia Chickens, nominated for a Grammy, has gone Platinum (over one million copies sold). Boynton has also written and directed eleven short musical films, including "One Shoe Blues," starring B.B. KIng; and two animated shorts: "When Pigs Fly," sung by Ryan Adams, and "Tyrannosaurus Funk," sung by Samuel L. Jackson, which won the 2018 Grand Prize for Best Children's Animation Short from the Rhode Island International Film Festival. In 2008, Boynton received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society.
Boynton has four perfect children, and an equally perfect granddaughter and grandson. She and her husband Jamie McEwan, a writer and whitewater expeditionist, raised their family on a very old New England farm (it's now a non-working farm,, except for the hyperactive cartoon chickens and disaffected imaginary cows and such). Her studio there is in a converted barn that has perhaps the only hippopotamus weathervane in America.
Conntect with Sandra Boynton:
Website: sandraboynton.com
Twitter: @sandyboynton
Instagram: @sandra_boynton
Facebook: @sandraboynton
Thank you to Workman Publishing for providing me with these three great puzzles.
