The Maier Brothers have created a series of adult celebrity word game books and approached long time blues broadcaster Bill Wax to create a blues edition for them.
At first Bill was reticent. Before being a storied and famed broadcaster for over four decades, Bill was a school teacher before all that. Two former students got in touch with him and he eventually agreed to create this volume. There are about 22 different ones now, but this is the first and only blues edition.
Celebrity Word Scramble: Famous Names in Music by Bill Maier is a puzzle book, filled with over a hundred unique challenges to test knowledge of famous singers both past and present.
There are instructions in the front matter, but it’s pretty simple. Like the Jumble in the daily and Sunday newspapers, there are a quartet of jumbled, unrelated words with circled letters that provide the name of a blues artist to unscramble and identify the artist.
A series of questions help the reader to identify the musician. A list of all 126 musicians is also provided, along with a scratchpad for each puzzle to help organize the user’s results.
As Maier himself proclaims, “Celebrity Word Scramble is intended to interest a wide scope of puzzle lovers with puzzle books on sports, entertainment, history, and literature.”
This would imply that Maier intends to release subsequent versions of this book, although at the time of reviewing publication dates were to be confirmed.
In the center of the book are some photos from Bill’s career and with notable blues musicians and events. It’s interesting to look over the added materials.
The puzzles are fun and are made for adults to solve. The artists range from the Ice Man Albert Collins to great Southern soul bluesman Z.Z. Hill.
The list of artists is alphabetized by the artist’s first names. The Who Am I? information serve as both clues and educational material for the reader to learn about the artists.
It’s a cool little volume and for blues fans who enjoy word games this is an ideal book to get.
While there are clues provided, the Maiers recommend a 3X5 card be used to block the clues until you really need them; there was one already tucked in the copy I received.
It’s a lot of fun if you like to solve word puzzles. Available via their website and Amazon, it’s easy to get a copy.
Bill’s done a nice job assembling over ten dozen artists to solve and learn about. If word puzzles and the blues are in your wheelhouse, then go get this book!
