GT KARBER
INSPIRATIONAL CHILDRENS BOOKS
Murder Mysteries Logic puzzles for children Before I made the first Murdle a murder-mystery logic puzzle that anyone can learn to solve - I was working as a tutor, helping young people in America get into the college of their dreams by teaching them logical reasoning and I had become obsessed with figuring out how to help someone break complicated problems into simple elements that they could understand. At night, I would read Agatha Christie mysteries, and I would marvel at the way that she could give you so much information, but present it in a way that made it easy to understand. A lot of people think mysteries are all about confusing the reader, but the best mysteries aren’t about confusion - they’re about understanding. If you don’t remember who all of the suspects were, then when you get to the big reveal, your only response might be: “Who?” But, if you’ve been carefully
Instead of trying to solve a complicated problem about the velocity of a falling rock, you’re trying to catch a criminal before they get away! People loved Murdle: in the UK, it was the #1 book of Christmas 2023 and it won the British Book Award for Book of the Year. Nobody felt like they were doing homework. In fact, before the first book was even published and we were still working on it, a curious thing started to happen: kids started to play with the book - on both sides of the Atlantic, children were already playing Murdle, which was unbelievable! Anyone who works in book production encounters children who aren’t into reading, called ‘reluctant readers’, and yet, with Murdle, kids were fighting to solve this book of puzzles for adults. From the very beginning, we wanted to make something just for kids, that they would love
misdirected, like in all the great Christie mysteries, then when you reach the reveal, you’re astounded: “I never suspected them for a moment, and yet it’s so obvious in retrospect!” Part of it was Christie’s genius, of course. She was a once-in-a-generation talent. However, it’s also just the case that murder mysteries are a lot more interesting than analytical chemistry (sorry, chemists, but it’s true). With Murdle, I combined the dry and boring nature of logical reasoning with the vivid and exciting world of murder mysteries. EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | AUT UM N 2024 | 29
