The OFFICIAL SCRABBLE PUZZLE BOOK

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat useful
Review: This is a good game if you're trying to find a way to make that 20 or 30 point word to put you in the lead for good. If I used it in some of my Online Scrabble games, I think that I would be fine. That's just me though.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat useful
Review: This is a good game if you're trying to find a way to make that 20 or 30 point word to put you in the lead for good. If I used it in some of my Online Scrabble games, I think that I would be fine. That's just me though.

Rating:
Summary: Improving your game
Review: You can pick up some good tips on how to beat your opponents from two-time National Scrabble Champion Joe Edley along with some challenging puzzles in this modest Scrabble puzzle book. I particularly recommend the material on pages 194-202 where Edley suggests that you develop the habit of asking yourself questions before making a play.

For example, question number one is, "Do I have a bingo?" (A good first question!) Question number two is the obvious, Which bonus squares are available, but question number three really gets to the nitty-gritty of good play: "Can you 'hook' any words? Look at every word already on the board and ask yourself if any single letter can be added to the front or back to form another word." Also important is question number four: "What will my 'leave' be after I've made my play?"

Too often the beginning player does not pay enough attention to the tiles he or she is going to be stuck with after a play. Sometimes, Edley advises, it is better to make a lower-scoring play in order to leave oneself with tiles likely (with a little help) to form a bingo.

The bulk of the book is devoted to Scrabble puzzles on various themes, e.g., "Placing your letters on hot spots"; using the J, Q, X and Z; two-, three-, four- and five-tile plays, etc. There is a diagram of the Scrabble grid with some plays already made. Underneath the diagram are the letters in several different racks. You are asked to find the best play. Edley recommends that you do the puzzles by setting them up on your own Scrabble board. I think that is the best way as well since the diagrams in the book are in black and white and so the bonus squares are not colored, and are highlighted only by the letters "DWS," "DLS" ("Double Word Score," "Double Letter Score"), etc. This makes it hard to get a quick feel for where to look. At least that was my experience.

A handy feature is the list of the 97 two-letter words allowed in official Scrabble tournaments on page 7. (I think that has been changed to 96 with "da" now being disallowed.) Interesting features include the weighed scores for answers to the various puzzles. For example, for the puzzle on page 93 there is an "expert" score (for five racks) of 155, a "good" score of 145, and an "average" score of 120. But Edley also gives his score of 164 and challenges you to beat it.

There are 800 puzzles, so this book will last through many a long winter's night; however this is not as good a book as the more substantial Everything Scrabble (revised 2001) by Edley (along with John D. Williams, Jr.), which I also recommend for the serious Scrabble player.