This brightly colored book alternates between the story of Odysseus’s journey home, told in his own cheeky voice, and ten puzzle mazes inspired by the events of his journey. The book shuffles the narrative around so that the story is told in chronological order, but otherwise it follows the Homeric version. All the puzzles are fun, educational, and intellectually challenging: some require readers to practice their math skills, while others are based on pattern recognition. For example, in one puzzle you can only move in one direction based on which (real!) constellation you land on. My favorite is the lotus-eater maze, where you can only move to flowers of the same shape or the same color. The last puzzle is set inside Odysseus’s palace, which is inspired by the Minoan palace at Knossos. Unlike many puzzle books, this one has a long shelf life. Once they’ve memorized all the puzzle’s solutions, readers can still enjoy rereading the book for its comic and accurate children’s version of the Odyssey. I’d recommend this for older kids, 8+, since the puzzles can be challenging, and Odysseus has a big vocabulary. Younger kids may enjoy hearing it read aloud, though, and since Odysseus is pretty funny about his adventures. – Krishni Burns