SHREWSBURY – Sanjay Pappu has loved puzzles his whole life. Crosswords, Wordle, sudoku – you name a puzzle, he has solved it.
And recently, the incoming Shrewsbury High School freshman has taken his love of puzzles to the next level. Pappu has released “Puzzle Mania,” his own book of logic games that he hopes will provide “hours of fun” to people of all ages.
The book took about nine months to create, and he’s excited to share his love of puzzles with the community.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved solving all types of puzzles – Rubik’s Cubes, jigsaw puzzles, even recently the New York Times Connections. I also really loved solving logic puzzles. In a logic puzzle, you’re like a detective, and you’re trying to solve a problem in a scenario based on a series of clues,” he told the Community Advocate in an interview.
The 127-page book contains 20 puzzles, and each puzzle contains a grid designed to help players solve the logic problem in a more organized, satisfying fashion. The back of the book is filled with complete, detailed solutions for the problems, giving players an opportunity to improve and grow throughout the course of the book.
Puzzles contain between three and five variables, and they are built around different topics; some puzzles are about space, for example, while others focus on basketball.
“My first puzzle was one about the NBA. I really, really like sports. … What I noticed about logic puzzles is that they’re meant for travel. They can fit in your bag. That meant they were very tiny. The puzzles were hard to read and use. I made it a point to print my puzzles on large paper, and I made very detailed solutions. It’s satisfying when you finally complete the puzzle,” said Pappu.
Pappu, who will serve as president of his class when he enters Shrewsbury High School, has plans for more books.
“In the near future, I was thinking I’d write another puzzle,” he said. “None of my puzzles here have a specific theme – they’re not connected to each other. I was thinking I could create a murder-mystery puzzle or sports-themed puzzle and connect all the puzzles together. Each of the puzzles would contain a clue, and at the end, you’d use those clues to solve a final mystery. I think that’d be really cool.”
“Puzzle Mania” is currently available at Tatnuck Bookseller, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. For more information on Pappu, visit his website at https://sanjaypappu.my.canva.site.
