When people ask us to recommend puzzles for kids, we usually point them to the friendly monsters of Justin Hillgrove, or our princess puzzles or the easy cartoon cats of Louis Wain.
But it turns out kids have complex tastes and may be delighted to puzzle with fine art!
Florence in Pennsylvania sends us this photo of her 7 year old grandson, writing, "He got up early one morning before everyone else, found the Carpet Merchant puzzle in the stack I had brought to the beach house, and was busy at work by the time I came down for breakfast.
"It did take a bit of help from his grandmother and aunt, but it got finished."
And apparently this young man's interest in fine art extends back to early Netherlandish, as Florence tells us:
"For his birthday, I gave my eight-year-old grandson who's in love with monsters the puzzle with Rogier Van der Weyden's painting of St. George and the dragon.
I have that puzzle myself, and he'd been noisily coveting it.
He opened it with his other presents after dinner on his birthday.
In the middle of the night, something woke his mother, and she discovered there was a light on downstairs.
She bravely went down to see what was going on—and there was Junior happily working on his new dragon puzzle.
Lots of sobs when he was told he had to go back to bed: he wouldn't be able to find time to work on it again until after school the next day!
I've never before given such a successful present."
Encouraged by his interest, and it's classic theme of man-vs-monster, we've added St. George and the Dragon to our new "kid-friendly" list of puzzles.