Neighbor Game: 2a Pop-Up Figure-It-Out Book

This pert puzzler is a pop-up form of a popular brain-teaser in which certain information is provided about a set of people (or places, or circumstances), and the solver must complete the picture by deduction. Here, readers are introduced to five youngsters--Amy, Bobby, Carol, Danny and Ellen--who dwell in the same apartment building and are then asked to figure out their last names and on which floor of the building each lives. (The copiously explained solution is contained in an envelope affixed to the book's final spread.) The expansion of this logic game into book form may seem ingenious initially, but youngsters old enough to solve the puzzle are unlikely to be particularly interested in pop-up picture books. In fact, Billin-Frye's cartoony illustrations, while amusing, add little; nor do the paper-engineering frills serve any noticeable purpose. Repeat ``readings'' are doubtful. Ages 6-10. (May)