The Puffin Quiz books have provided me a lot of fun. They are written in a really interesting way and, as challenging quizzes written for children are often challenging for me too! The first book was published in 1956 and the second was published in 1960 which sometimes leads to interesting convolutions as you try and work out what the answer would have been then. Occasionally too it leads to outdated attitudes such as when describing the black keys on a piano as black slaves in a phrase for memory of how many keys there are, thankfully this is rare. The first book has a short introduction which sums up a bit of the philosophy of the books. Here is my favourite part of it:

"We have tried to make the answers as satisfactory as

possible; we hope there are no mistakes, but some of

the questions do not allow of really complete or definite

answers - and perhaps these last are the most interesting

because the they may give you something to argue

about."

This decision to go towards open ended questions and to privilege interesting discussions over ease of marking recognises that quizzes are not about providing a valid test of people's knowledge but of allowing people to revel in that knowledge, to surprise themselves with an apt memory, to groan at something they should have known, to find out about things they had not considered before and to broaden their horizons. The questions are written in interesting way that allow the readers to look for patterns and errors and give range and space for discussion. They are often openended, for example "In how many different ways is the earth moving at the moment? What are they?". They expect a lot of their readers and don't talk down to or infantalise them, an attitude that is also recognisable from Puffin Post.