Sudoku Renews Activity Book Interest

“Sudoku has brought many new people, of all ages, into puzzles,” — Sadie Perkins, Waldenbooks

Look around. They can be seen everywhere: Puzzle and activity books are incredibly popular right now. What has taken these standard-bearers of the toy market out of the shadows and into the spotlight? One word: Sudoku.

This logic puzzle (read article) has caused a sensation, spreading demand like wildfire through the puzzle/activity book market. Many other types of puzzles are enjoying the consumer enthusiasm by riding on Sudoku’s coattails.

“Sudoku has brought many new people, of all ages, into puzzles,” said Sadie Perkins, bookseller at Waldenbooks of South Portland, Maine. “We’ve always had a strong customer base with other types of puzzles: crosswords, word searches and other similar things …. So, the interest has always been there but not on this scale.”

With Sudoku bringing in new generations of puzzle aficionados, every level of the market — from designers to manufacturers to retailers — are trying to determine how to keep up the level of enthusiasm. One thing’s for certain: If a product can strike a chord with the consumer, it will be successful, even if it doesn’t come with batteries.

“While those type of toys [video and electronic] are still quite popular with children, there has become a sense of ‘been there, done that,” suggested Moore Porsaid, president of Bead Bazaar Inc. (ToyShow)

To catch consumers’ attention, Bead Bazaar introduced a line of coordinating books and puzzles that tap into young peoples’ interests. Books attract both genders, featuring such characters as horses, mermaids, wizards, butterflies and unicorns. Most successful, Porsaid noted, is Bead Bazaar’s rainforest book and puzzle.

“We test out all of our products with children, and the combination of the 18- to 20-page booklet and the puzzle works very well, especially for the 5-to-14 age bracket,” Porsaid said. “It’s combining reading and hands-on, and that is proving to be successful for us.”

Highly visible product names such as Bratz and Batman help extend the customer base by attracting different types of kids. Still, other companies are looking at how to merge technology with traditional creativity to make a new breed of puzzles and activities.

Dover Publications Inc., for example, is including computer CD-ROMS with its activity books. But, Diane Teitel Rubins, juvenile/educational market specialist for Dover, explained, a lot rides on the originality of the products themselves.

“We are always striving to improve our products, whether it is something as simple as adding perforations to our line of Paint or Color books, or glitter to our beautiful full-color sticker books,” she said.

The company is trying out new formats such as coloring books with stickers bound inside, color-your-own-sticker art and a paper doll storybook that includes a paper doll with clothes attached inside the book. Additionally, Dover is releasing a new line of reasonably priced kits packaged in attractive boxes, featuring best-selling themes such as dinosaurs, magic, stamp collecting, origami and chess.

These kinds of innovations keep the category fresh. And, although some may say that the Sudoku puzzle fad is destined to fizzle out, toy industry veterans agree that customers will continue to seek the challenge offered by a great word, number or logic puzzle for years to come.

The following is more information on products that follow this trend.