The Official Book of Kakuro: Book 1: 150 Puzzles -- Easy, Medium, and Hard

by Timothy E. Parker

Book Overview

Sharpen your pencils-and your wits-there's a new puzzle in town. Millions of Sudoku fans around the world are discovering a brand new addiction: the brain-buster Kakuro. Combining the appeal of a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452287529
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A good introduction to Kakuro

This was my first Kakuro book. It got me up and running quickly.

Excellent starting point

I made the mistake of starting out with /Kakuro for Dummies/. While that's an okay book if you want a random assortment of challenging Kakuro puzzles, it is a TERRIBLE beginner's book. All the /Dummies/ book did was make me feel like a complete idiot. How is this book different? Simple. The puzzles are carefully arranged to teach you certain skills as you go along. Rather than saying, "here are the rules, and here's a billion random puzzles to solve," Tim Parker has picked an excellent selection of Kakuro puzzles with a nice progression to them. It is clear a lot of thought went into how new players will approach this book. Playing through the puzzles in order will indirectly teach you a great deal about how to solve Kakuro better and faster. Good teachers will teach you by example, through experience, and by building confidence. Bad teachers (the Dummies book) will throw a bunch of facts at you and toss you into the deep end to fend for yourself. I prefer the confidence-building approach, and this book does an excellent job at indirectly teaching you to play Kakuro. Highly recommended for newbies and my fellow victims of bad Kakuro books.

Great Starting Book

This book is nicely done and has good quality paper. It gives a good introduction to Kakuro and tips on how to solve the puzzles. The puzzles are clear, readable, and do-able. The levels of diffuculty are as they are, easy is easy, medium is medium, and hard is hard. I have enjoyed this book and plan to get Book 2 once it comes out. I would recommend this book to everyone.

A good starter . . .

I found this to be a good book to start on, not because of the introductory text, but because the easy section was designed to teach specific strategies. When I began the medium section, I found I really needed a chart of the ways to make each sum with different digits. I began developing my own before finding nicely designed ones in Gareth Moore's The Essential Book of Kakuro. Timothy Parker's book's paper quality, binding, and book size are all effective. I'll buy Book 2 when it comes out.

A worthy companion to Sudoku

As a fan of Sudoku, I was somewhat intrigued when I came across this new puzzle book After going through a portion of the puzzles, I found them to be quite challenging. To those who enjoy Sudoku, and are looking for something new, I'd recommend giving Kakuro a try.