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the exploration. Good morning, Allison, how are you?
Speaker 2: Good morning?
Speaker 1: I'm great, How are you fantastic? I've had the best
time of my life over the past year with the
last time that we shared a conversation because as an adult,
and I know that these are for young adults and
even younger than that, I'm telling you this is such
the universal language what you're doing with Highlights. And I
thank you very highly for this new book, Puzzle a
Day Challenge.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh my gosh, I'm so pleased to hear that
you're a puzzle person. That's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well, it's become that new thing that families are doing
around the kitchen table because we've heard it into a
game and I'm going, wait a second, I've had highlights
in my life, my entire life, and it's like they
have figured out this way to bring people together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pubbles are so unifying. We talk about that all
the time, and how we can even create new materials
for families to puzzle together and create connections. And I'm
so happy to hear that you're doing that already.
Speaker 1: So how are you able to do this when? Because
I mean, I mean you're in charge of puzzle innovation,
I mean that that makes you like a Frank Lloyd
wrighte of design because look at what you're doing to
our imaginations.
Speaker 2: Isn't that the cool job? I feel very lucky to
be the head of puzzle innovation at Highlights. It's the
puzzles are so important to us. All of our materials
contain puzzles in one way or another, and we're constantly
thinking about ways to make them fresh and fun and
in the moment, hence the puzzle innovation team that we
have thinking about news formats for puzzling can include stickers,
Can we use you lead glasses for code puzzles? Can
we do two player puzzles? And all kinds of new
formats and new ideas that we can keep making new
puzzle products that families can do together.
Speaker 1: What's fascinating about this, Allison, And this is just coming
from from me. I don't want to call myself a
silver haired person. Not yet, I don't want to. I'm
still seventeen in my heart. But the thing about it
is you're giving us brain games. You take cognitive skills
so important inside this book, and young adults they need
this as well.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, there's so many benefits to puzzling, and there's
you know, there's the obvious ones, like a word puzzle
will help you with your vocabulary, a number puzzle will
help you learn math. But then there's so many less
obvious skills that you learn from puzzling, like practicing, patience,
and perseverance. But we call we have a phrase that
we say which is the satisfaction of the solves. And
it's very important to us that solving the puzzle is
satisfying so that kids learn that there's a payoff for perseverance.
And so some of the ways we do that are
adding an extra layer so you finish a word search,
but also the uncircled words give you the answer to
a riddle, So there's always like some kind of payoff
for getting through the puzzle and feeling that satisfaction.
Speaker 1: You know, what's so funny about what you just shared
is the fact that we've got this gigantic storm headed
to the Carolinas and we're all just just built up
with anxiety right now. And I just wrote in my
daily writing about patience and perseverance, and I literally said,
I've got to be like Highlights and this, and I've
got to go to this book if I start feeling
out of you know, overwhelmed, and then you bring it
up and I'm going, she's totally in touch with what's
going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's so nice. Also to go analogs. Sometimes
I think there's another layer of satisfaction to using a
pencil to fill in the blank. So it's doubly satisfying.
Speaker 1: How many people though and this this is going to
probably knock out gen Z and Alpha and Beta. This
reminds me so much of my Think and Do book?
Speaker 2: Oh Thinking, Do do you remember that? No? I don't,
I don't. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: It was the one book that we got well, I
mean it started when I was in kindergarten and when
I want to stay up to the third grade and
that everybody at the beginning of the year got a
Think and Do book, and it would be I always
thought that Highlights and Weekly Reader was a part of it.
Because it was always so up to date with what
was going on. And that's why I swear to God
when I see highlights, even at the dentist's office, where
do I go to? Not the People magazine? I go
to Highlights.
Speaker 2: Got to go to the Highlights. Of course. Yeah, that's
what we're doing. We're always going to keep our finger
on the poll, keep our puzzles and descriptions and books
fresh and fun. You know, we follow the trends where
we received letters from kids, actually thousands of letters a month,
which helps us keep in tune with what they're into
so we can infuse all our materials for what the
kids are really wanting.
Speaker 1: There's some research that I have done here that I
find very inspiring by Highlights, and that is is that
you guys have really put a lot of attention in
strengthening our visual perception. And the research that I did was,
as I'm holding this book puzzle a day, challenge, there's
a little curve from the binding up and it's that
perception that we need as human beings because we're not
getting it on a flat screen. And it's like, I'm
going these guys know what they're doing when it comes
to keeping that eye on the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very tactile experience with paper. It's nice,
it's you know, very satisfying to fill in the blanks.
And the puzzles are super colorful. It's honey illustrations. So really, yes,
we pay attention to that. So keeping you super interested
in the page.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Alison Kine coming
up next. Highlights brand new book is one that people
are going to be talking about. I'm talking about every
age group puzzle a day challenge. More than just a book,
it's a movement. Find out more about it. Let's go
back to Alison kan Now, when you've got problem solving
taking place here, that can also lead to delegation. So
when we work as a team with Highlights as well
as those around us, I mean, I love the fact
that you are planting skills and I love going across
the street to my neighbors with it with their little
ones that are just starting school now, and it just
blows me away on how you've developed this language that
speaks to us all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's true. I mean I think there's
a community of us right, puzzle people who can't resist
the puzzle and we're bringing more and more people into
that community every day with highlights materials, especially with this
Puzzle a Day Challenge book that we're coming out with
the next week. We've issued this challenge to do three
hundred and sixty five puzzles across the course of the year,
one a day, and the book itself we says for
ages fixing up, but truly there's no limit to the appits.
I think a lot of these things will be challenging
for us. Mostly I had a hard time with some
of them. So yeah, that's the idea, is to create
this community of people who just who love puzzles, who
are doing puzzles every day. It sounds like you're one
of them.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, and I do like the challenges because
when you show me a picture of all of these
jellybeans and we have to go in there and try
to figure out where the crayons are, what do you
think my imagination is doing. I'm gonna find them all.
This is my game.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it's it's irrevisible, right, you have to find them.
I do. That's how I feel anyway.
Speaker 1: And you know what's really interesting about this, My wife,
being a former school teacher, and she says that that
the math problems that you put in here and how
you strengthen up our math skills doesn't feel like a
teacher's test. It's almost like Highlights is celebrating what we
do know and we're going to learn something new today.
Speaker 2: Yes, we call it joyful learning. And if you're familiar
with a magazine, that's actually magazin our tagline there is
fun with a purpose, and we always say the fun
comes first. If the illustration isn't inviting, or you know,
we don't include humorous language and fun tons and things
that kids are going to be into, then the puzzle
is not going to be fun. And we think about
all the time not crossing the line from challenging into frustrating.
That's the key to creating a good puzzle. You want
to challenge your brain, but you don't want to be
frustrated because if the puzzle's stressing you out and you're
not going to have any fun, so what's the point.
So yes, we're always thinking about the fun part in
equal celebration with the educational part.
Speaker 1: Well, if you could hear us laughing at the kitchen table,
all of us, including my grandchildren with us that right
there tells you how much fun you're going to have
with a book like this.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yes, is there any way that this can be attached
to like stam science in the way that I mean
with the way that you talk about science, you talk
about math, you talk about those different levels of education
that people are kind of a right because like, oh,
I'm going to be one of the smart people. Now
it's an automatic. You've already got the gift. Just go
ahead and share it with the rest of the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely we say that, especially in this book
and many of our publications, we intentionally include a variety
of puzzles because I think that he has different interests
and likes to think in a different way, and it's
nice to challenge your brand to think in different ways. So,
you know, finding a path through a maze has you
thinking differently than solving a mass puzzle, or than filling
in a crossword puzzle or looking for hidden objects, so
it tickles every part of your brain.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna ask you a serious question from
one author to another one here and that is my
first book, One Man's twenty one Thoughts took ony twenty
one days to put together. That was just writing it.
You're doing a puzzle a day. How long did it
take you to put this book together?
Speaker 2: Oh? We have a wonderful team, thankfully, Annie, my colleague
is the one who related the hard work of arranging
and curating three hundred and sixty five puzzles, And honestly,
I think the bulk of the work is then creating
the answer chees for three hundred and sixty five puzzles.
And I believe she started how we started planning this
book about a year and a half ago. So yeah,
I think the longest to work on these kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Wow, where can people go to find out more about
what you guys are doing with puzzle today? In fact,
this is going into I mean you're spreading this into businesses,
in different organizations. I mean, this isn't just a book
in our hands. I mean you've made this into a
national movement.
Speaker 2: It's not. Yeah, you can find this book anywhere you
buy books, and you can actually pre order it now
comes down on the twenty seventh. But in addition to that,
we are hosting puzzle parties across the US. There's one
thousand venues across the United States, who are receiving Highlights
Puzzle Party kiss that include principal printed out puzzles for
kids to take home or do during the event. There
are highlighters and stickers and other giveaways. And if you
can't make it out to one of the venues, the
best way to find one is to look for your
local bookstores and libraries to see if they're hosting something
ahead of National Puzzle Day next week. But if you
can't actually go out in the world to one of those,
we have this downloadable puzzles so you can celebrate at home.
I think we may have sent you the links to
that secuture it with your readers, or they could go
to or your listeners. Rather, you could go to Terence
dot Highlights dot com. You'll find lots of those three
principles there to including some pages from Puzzle a Day
Challenge if you want to take a look.
Speaker 1: Wow, please come back to this show anytime in the future.
Ten minutes with you is never enough time.
Speaker 2: I'll talk about puzzles anytime.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, you too, Thank you so much.