My younger brother ordered this book through the Scholastic Book Club or similar program in the late ’90s. He would have been between kindergarten and 2nd grade. The book followed a young boy who, I think, was visiting his uncle or grandfather and fell through, I think, a grandfather clock into another world. The reader had to solve puzzles to help him escape. The puzzles were answered on the next page and you weren’t supposed to turn the page until you solved the puzzle. They would be something like, if 12 o’clock is green and 6 o’clock is red, what color is 3? Some of the puzzles were quite hard and took us a while to solve. What I remember the most is the illustrations. They were vivid, almost life-like. They were dark and the world the boy had fallen into was frightening but the scenery was detailed and stunning, even to me as a young child.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
Not sure, and maybe you’ve found it already, but this immediately made me think of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.
There is a book called “The Grandfather Clock” by Anthony Hill, copyright 1996, that sounds like it could be the right one, but it appears to have been published only in Australia and not by Scholastic. One subject heading I found said “Puzzles” and the author’s own website say it is “A story that will linger long in the memory of the reader, one of the all-too-few books that offer a gifted child genuine nourishment for the mind and heart.” (anthonyhillbooks.com)
The book isn’t The Phantom Tollbooth or The Grandfather Clock. The book is only around 20 pages long and every two pages would make one giant picture. I called my brother to see what he knew and he thinks that we may have it in storage. If we find it, I’ll be sure to post it.