HOL

Welcome to Literary Conundrum!


Graphic shows the word conundrum in large orange font, on a black background. Surmounting that word, and underneath it, are synonyms written with smaller fonts and different colors. The list of words starts with "unfathomable, insurmountable, whodunit, solve, tantalize, factorize, abstruse" and ends with "unscramble,, incomprehensible, superhuman, labyrinthine"

Book Club is happy to present another activity for the people of HOL Hogwarts.
Literary Conundrum starts up in March and will focus on the various and assorted aspects of literature. We'll be offering everyone four puzzles to solve and/or complete every month, all of which will be due by the end of the month (so you can do it all at once, or one at a time, or wait until the last minute and a frantic flurry of activity ) .

We'll have an overall literary theme for each month. While all the puzzles will take their inspiration from a book or books which fit the theme, the themes themselves will be wide ranging: from dinosaurs to quantum physics to herbology to comedy.

We hope you decide to earmark this page, and follow along as we post the activities for each month, and then do them.

As always, if for accessibility reasons you can't complete any of the activities presented, please just let one of us know and an alternative can be worked out.

Literary Conundrum - March - The Universe

Welcome to our first month of Literary Conundrum. The March theme is 'The Universe'.

Science and science fiction have a great deal of fun focusing on the great unknowns of the Universe. Cookbooks and mysteries also visit that theme. So many movies and television shows have been made, and then books written about those shows and based on the stories therein.

A quick Google search finds this as a definition for 'the universe': "All existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. The universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light years in diameter and contains a vast number of galaxies; it has been expanding since its creation in the Big Bang about 13 billion years ago."

Have you heard of Stephen Hawking? He wrote several books including A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell. His writing is eloquent, straight-forward and quite wonderful to read. There are children's books written about the universe! The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe, written by Sandra Nickel and illustrated by Aimée Sicuro, is a wonderful introduction to kids about the beauties of the universe (if they'd not already been wondering about it!)


Following are four puzzles, or challenges, taken from some well-known books, which convey different ideas and feelings about the universe. You can do one or all of them. You'll receive 20 Beans for each that you finish and send in to me, Professor Tarma Amelia Black, in a HOL Forum PM. You have until the end of March (March 31st, 11:59 pm HOL time) to send in your answers and/or solutions!

Send in with subject "Literary Conundrum - (name of puzzle)"


Cryptogram


Graphic shows a Cryptogram puzzle
Click here for direct link to puzzle

Click here for larger image.

Fallen Letters

Graphic shows a Fallen Letters puzzle
Click here for direct link.

Click here for larger image.

Jigsaw
Our own bit of the universe, as seen from the ancient site of Stonehenge, is gorgeous. The Milky Way is beautiful!
Stonehenge and the Milky Way
When you have solved the Jigsaw, send me the screenshot of the completed picture. Please make sure that your time and number of pieces (130) show up in your screenshot.. The 3 people with the fastest times will earn some bonus Beans!

Letter Tiles

Graphic shows a letter tiles puzzle
Click here for direct link.

Click here for larger image.

Enjoy!

Answers sent in by -

Fallen Letters
Professor Sindor Aloyarc
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Silvana Mandeville
Louis Walles
Harry Walles
Emily Spencer

Cryptogram
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Professor Sindor Aloyarc
Harry Walles
Louis Walles
Emily Spencer

Jigsaw
Jodie Smith - 11:47
Maxim Trevelyan - 12:21
Harry Walles - 12:03
Louis Walles - 12:30
Silvana Mandeville - 16:15
Emily Spencer - 21:55

Letter Tiles
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Louis Walles
Harry Walles
Silvana Mandeville

Remember, you have until the end of March to send in your answers and/or solutions!

Answers:

Fallen Letters
“Everything you'll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body.”

Cryptogram
“I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.”
― Stephen Hawking

Letter Tiles
“Space [...] is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.”

People earning Beans!

Emily Spencer - 60
Harry Walles - 80 +10 = 90
Jodie Smith - 80 + 10 = 90
Louis Walles - 80
Maxim Trevelyan - 80 + 10 = 90
Professor Sindor Aloyarc - 40
Silvana Mandeville - 60

Extra beans are sent to Jodie, Harry and Maxim for having the fastest times in the Jigsaw.

Thank you all for participating!

A new Literary Conundrum will appear tomorrow!

Literary Conundrum - April - In the Garden

Welcome back to Literary Conundrum. The April theme is 'In the Garden'.

Gardens and greenhouses are special places. Usually they are a place of, yes, some work, when taking care of the plants, but they are also a place to be quiet and still whilst working with plants. Our very own Harry Potter books have action in Greenhouses. Do you remember when they were repotting (or potting up) the Mandrakes? Those ear-muffs were very important!

I again did a Google search to find a quick definition for greenhouses:
The definition of a greenhouse is a building made of glass panes in which heat and humidity can be regulated in order to grow plants. An example of a greenhouse is where vegetables can be grown when the outside weather is below freezing.

The word 'garden' has a much wider variety of definitions, but the general theme is that it is a place where plants are grown. It can be a small place, as small as a window sill, or it can be of many acres or even of many hectare, and the plants grown are only limited by the imagination and abilities of the gardener (and the local climate).


Following are four puzzles, or challenges, prompted by some well-known books, which have as their source books on gardening or green houses or where gardens and/or green houses play an important part. You may do one or all of them. You'll receive 20 Beans for each that you finish and send in to me, Professor Tarma Amelia Black, in a HOL Forum PM. You have until the end of April (April 30th, 11:59 pm HOL time) to send in your answers and/or solutions!

Send in with subject "Literary Conundrum - (name of puzzle)"


Logic Puzzle
What do we do with flowers? We enjoy them! Following is a Logic Puzzle featuring flowers ...

Five women bought five different types of flowers for different reasons on different days.
Names: Julia, Amy, Bethany, Rachel, and Kristen
Flowers: Roses, Daisies, Lilies, Tulips, and Carnations
Colors: Purple, Yellow, Pink, White, and Peach
Places or Occasions: Backyard, Park, Office, Wedding, and Birthday
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

1. The flowers were purchased in the following order: tulips, the flowers for the office, the purple flowers, the roses for the park, and the white flowers bought by Julia.
2. Bethany loves flowers but is allergic, so she would never have them indoors.
3. It rained on Wednesday and Friday, because of this, the wedding and birthday party had to be moved indoors.
4. Amy bought her flowers after Rachel, but before Kristen.
5. Rachel needed something more to add to her office, so she chose peach flowers to match her curtains.
6. On Wednesday the only purple flowers available at the flower shop were daisies.
7. The pink flowers were bought after the carnations, but before the lilies.
8. The flowers for the birthday were bought after the flowers for the office, but before the flowers for the wedding.

Solve the puzzle, telling me who chose what flower, what color it was, on which day this was done and what occasion prompted it.

If you like using grids, here is a 5x5 grid for you - click

Note: If you get stuck, write to me using a HOL forum PM (see link above) and say 'LC - Logic - WD-40 please' and we can look at what you have and hopefully get you on track!
(Thank you, Emily, for this Logic Puzzle.)

Flowers Word Scramble
Flowers are so beautiful. Some are quite simple and modest and others are flamboyant and extremely colorful - with all varieties in between. Mention of flowers abound in all kinds of stories and plays.
In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, you can find

‘There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray,
love, remember: and there is pansies. that’s for thoughts.’

Graphic shows a picture of flowers, herbs and 'green' plants on a sunny day, with a row of scrambled up letters in the middle from top to bottom.
Direct link to image - click
Link to larger image - click
Unscramble the 15 words, all of which are names of flowers, and send to me by the end of the month to earn 20 Beans!
(Thank you, Emily, for this Word Scramble.)

Jigsaw
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is a classic children's novel and tells of a young girl who lived in India, was orphaned and sent to live with her uncle in Misselthwaite Manor (which is located in the gloomy Yorkshire, England). Yorkshire is cold and she is used to living in a warm climate. Miserable, she is stubborn and rude, and given to stormy temper tantrums. Then she discovers a walled garden which is always kept locked and also discovers there is a great mystery about the place. The Secret Garden has been adapted extensively on stage, film and television and translated into all the world's major languages.

The Secret Garden

When you have solved the Jigsaw, send me the screenshot of the completed picture. Please make sure that your time and number of pieces (117) show up in your screenshot.. The 3 people with the fastest times will earn some bonus Beans!

Maze
Sometimes an entire area is regarded as a garden by the inhabitants. This Maze has a faint and ghostly background of a famous area of Middle Earth (a land written about by J.R.R. Tolkien in his The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, and also in his The Lord of the Rings series).


Graphic shows a maze superimposed on a ghostly image of Bags End.

For direct link to Maze, click here
For a larger picture of Maze, click here

I hope you enjoy our Literary Conundrums for April!

Answers sent in by -

Logic Puzzle
Professor Scarlet Leslie-Lewis
Maxim Trevelyan

Flowers Word Scramble
Fels
Maxim Trevelyan

Jigsaw
Fels - 24:13
Maxim Trevelyan - 8:28

Maze
Silvana Mandeville
Fels
Maxim Trevelyan

Beans have been sent to Fels, Maxim, Scarlet and Silvana.

Answers are:

Logic Puzzle Answer:
Julia: Lilies, White, Wedding, Friday
Amy: Daisies, Purple, Birthday, Wednesday
Bethany: Tulips, Yellow, Backyard, Monday
Rachel: Carnations, Peach, Office, Tuesday
Kristen: Roses, Pink, Park, Thursday

Word Scramble Answer:
Daisy
Gardenia
Carnation
Orchid
Tulip
Marigold
Rose
Azalea
Buttercup
Chrysanthemum
Geranium
Lavender
Snapdragon
Iris
Petunia

Maze Pathway

Adventure! Whether it’s a deliberate quest to explore new places or a character finding themselves in the midst of a perilous journey by accident, It’s at the heart of so many beloved stories.

The Oxford Dictionary defines adventure as: “an unusual and exciting or daring experience.” This is something that could crop up in a story of just about any genre, of course.

When we think of ‘adventure’ as a genre in itself though, it almost always involves an epic journey of some kind. You’ll usually find maps, voyages, mishaps and discoveries in abundance. Great examples are Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (which brought us the enduring character of Long John Silver) and many books by Jules Verne, like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days.

Here are 4 adventure themed puzzles for you to embark on. Each is worth 20 beans and they’re all due by 11:59 PM HOL-time on 31st May. You can do as many or as few as you want. Submit each puzzle to me (Prof. Sky Alton) as a forum PM with the subject ‘May Literary Conundrum – Puzzle Type’.

Jigsaw (20 Beans)
From treasure maps to world atlases, maps are the hallmark of a good adventure story. Solve this jigsaw to reveal a map of your own. Who knows where it might take you?

Riddles (10 beans per correct answer, 20 overall)
Riddle me this.... Here are 2 riddles (spoiler alert, neither are about what I've got in my pocketses). Each is worth 10 beans.
1. "Inside me the adventurous find
Quests and treasures of every kind
Trolls,goblins,orcs, and more, await
Within my closed Walls for
All those that wish to visit me.
Your hands are the key
To secrets untold,
And your mind will unlock the door."
2. "I have towns but no buildings, forests but no trees, and rivers but no water. What am I?"

Logic Puzzle (20 beans)
Some famous fictional adventurers are at a distant port, waiting to board ships to far flung destinations. There are 5 adventurers and all are boarding a different ship, bound for 5 separate countries. The ships also have different colour flags (including blue). There is a set order in which ships must depart the port and the 5 you’re concerned with are scheduled to leave on different dates: the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 12th.
Do you know which adventurer is bound for which country, the colour of their ships flag and the date their ship will leave the port?
Please write your answer (in words) like this: adventurer - flag colour - destination country - day
clues
1. Captain Nemo’s ship (which has a yellow flag) will leave either on the 6th or 4th. Tintin’s ship will leave either on the 8th or 12th.
2. The ship with the green flag will leave two days after Gulliver’s ship (which isn’t headed for Australia).
3. The ship with the purple flag will leave 8 days after Jim Hawkins’ ship. The ship which is going to France will leave before any of the other ships you’re dealing with.
4. Trillian’s ship is going to Brazil and will leave 4 days after the ship with an orange flag (which is going to Australia)
5. The ship going to Thailand will leave two days after Jim Hawkins’ ship (which is going to Japan)

Word Scrambles (20 beans)
Here are 9 terrains/locations where adventure novels are often set. You’ll earn 2 beans per correct answer, with a bonus of 2 for getting them all correct:
1. Ejgunl
2. Ounmitsna
3. Apsmw
4. Vcae
5. Srefto
6. dstere
7. diasln
8. cneoa
9. ycti

With many thanks to the original creators of the jigsaw and the riddles!

Answers sent in by:
Logic Puzzle
Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Word Scrambles
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Riddles
Jodie Smith
Maxim Trevelyan
Jigsaw
Maxim Trevelyan

Answers to last months puzzles are:

Riddles
1. Book
2. Map

Logic Puzzle
Gulliver – blue – France – 2nd
Jim Hawkins – green – Japan – 4th
Captain Nemo – yellow – Thailand – 6th
Tintin – orange – Australia – 8th
Trillian – purple – Brazil – 12th

Word Scrambles
1. jungle
2. mountains
3. swamp
4. cave
5. forest
6. desert
7. island
8. ocean
9. City

Beans will be awarded in the next few minutes.

Welcome back to Literary Conundrum. Our theme for June is Mysteries.

So many books and stories are based in the wondering of what happened, of who did what when. Mystery, or puzzle, stories have been told through the whole history of mankind, but people often agree that the first printed 'detective story' is The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. This short story was first published in the April 1841 issue of Graham's Magazine.

Nearly 20 years later, The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, was published and is generally considered to be the first mystery novel, with Collins' The Moonstone, published in 1868, thought to be the first 'detective' novel. The Woman in White,a tale of madness, mistaken identity and murder, has never been out of print.

I've followed a trail of mysteries and found some common threads. Here are four puzzles, or challenges, which use material taken from various authors and books. Maybe you might recognize some of the authors, characters and/or books! You may do one or all of the challenges. You'll receive 20 Beans for each that you finish and send in to me, Professor Tarma Amelia Black, in a HOL Forum PM. You have until the end of June (June 30th, 11:59 pm HOL time) to send in your answers and/or solutions!

Send in with subject "Literary Conundrum - (name of puzzle)"


Word Search
There are the names of 21 famous (or infamous) literary detectives hidden within this Word Search puzzle.


Graphic shows a Wordsearch puzzle
Click here for direct link to puzzle

Oh, you want to know what names are hidden therein? Okay .....

Graphic shows the names to find in the Wordsearch puzzle
Click here for direct link to word list

Fallen Letters
We all seem to have our favorite quotes from the various mystery stories. I checked out a site to show what a lot of people love and this quote seems very popular ...

Graphic shows a Fallen Letters puzzle
Click here for direct link to puzzle.

Jigsaw

Murder on the Orient Express
Favorite mystery stories made into movies -- and enjoyed again in a different form!

When you have solved the Jigsaw, send me the screenshot of the completed picture. Please make sure that your time and number of pieces (144) show up in your screenshot.. The 3 people with the fastest times will earn some bonus Beans!

Cryptogram
I've my own personal favorites of authors, their literary character creations and quotes taken from their stories. I do love Agatha Christie and her stories. This is from The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie --

Graphic shows a Cryptogram puzzle
Click here for direct link.
Yes, that image is a little small and maybe a trifle blurry in a couple of places!
Click here for larger and more clear image.

Answers sent in by -

Word Search
Aura Nightmoon


Fallen Letters
Aura Nightmoon


Jigsaw
Aura Nightmoon (15:59)


Cryptogram
Aura Nightmoon

Well done, Aura Nightmoon, for completing all the puzzles for June's Literary Conundrum!

Beans are sent to you.

Here are the answers to the various puzzles --

Fallen Letters
“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”
The Man with the Twisted Lip - Arthur Conan Doyle

Cryptogram
“Yes, it was dangerous, but we are not put into this world, Mr. Burton, to avoid danger when an important fellow creature's life is at stake.”
The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie

Word Search


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Book Club is putting Literary Conundrums to rest for the summer.

Be sure to check out the Summer Read-along for a summer activity here in Book Club!