Our traditions, 3: Riddles
Psichogios Publications | 2023 | Illustrations: Adriana Roussou
In the days of our grandparents and of their grandpas and grandmas, riddles were a game that was usually played between teams. The players would form two teams and challenge each other with riddles, to see which team would guess the most answers. Who could think up the most difficult riddles, and who would manage to find the solution. And thus, riddles, which resemble little poems and usually end with a question, “What am I?” have come down to our own day. They are alive and well and we like to tell them with our friends. So, let’s get started and read some of our favourites. And who’s going to guess the right answer?
Critical Reviews
How I enjoyed this book! I shared it, I read it aloud with some beloved people and we became kids for a short while and it made me aware how important our traditions and roots are for our own lives, those of our children and for our continuity.
Katerina Sideri, Vivlio-Life.gr, 01/03/24
We owe it to our brain to exercise it, just as we do our body, and not leave it idle and inactive. Today neither children nor adults train their brains, they look for ready solutions, ‘predigested food’ or, in other words, technology. Technology is good but this too is driven by the brain. A person is called upon every moment of their life to manage situations, most of them difficult, to solve personal problems, family problems, work-related problems. In order to succeed, one has to have a sharp, well-tempered brain and Riddles, by the experienced writers Makis Tsitas and Rania Boubouri, is just the right tool to hone it.
Niki Salpadimou, Peri Ou, 24/02/24
Using simple but multiple gestures, Tsitas and Boubouri have brought a large, joyful and entertaining part of tradition to centerstage.
This is a book that is a delight for the eyes from the point of view of illustrations and rich content, given that it can be read with pleasure by both children and adults. Each one has a brief yet comprehensive introduction, suggesting indirect and pleasurable ways of using them.
Giannis S. Papadatos, bookpress.gr, 03/02/24
Brilliant, inventive, perceptive, density, humour, a sense of belonging, worthy rules and standards are invested with wonderful accuracy and simplicity.
Vivi Kopsida-Vrettou, literature.gr, 18/12/23
Yesterday continues to be enjoyable even today and the two authors show it with their delightful, useful and entertaining books in the series, which continues with Riddles and Carols. Thanks to these books, young readers familiarise themselves with our folklore, which perhaps they imagine inaccessible or boring but which finally they can learn about through games.
Panos Tourlis, vivliokritikes.com, 3/12/23
Makis Tsitas and Rania Boubouri possess a long-standing successful record in the field of writing children’s books, each with a large number of titles. Their fertile collaboration in the series “Our Tradition” concerns our folkloric wealth and the two authors manage to bring it close to children in a playful way . . .
Toula Repani, fractalart.gr, 28/11/23