State of Mind Review

Puzzle	State of Mind
Artist	Susan Greenleaf
Type	Teaser
Catalog Picture

This new for 2008-teaser by artist Susan Greenleaf is a new twist on a kid's 50-state map of the United States, teaser style.

When this one came out into the catalog, I had to buy it, I mean my first jigsaw puzzle was a fifty state map and my favorite childhood one had some matching iconography such as the peaches for Georgia. My childhood puzzle definitely did not have teaser cavities!

This is a quite enjoyable puzzle though, due to the teaser cavity, may not be as good as other puzzles at teaching geography. The art is nice and the silhouettes appropriately themed Americana or regional/location specific.
In terms of the teaser aspects, this was a very satisfying, everything has its place but its not trivial to assemble. There were some "gimmes" but also some open spaces you needed to play with.

In terms of difficulty, this is more like 1, maybe 2, swords IMHO. I finished in less than 90 minutes. The fact that one knows the puzzle is a map of the US is a big help.

If you have nostalgia for state map puzzles, this is a great teaser, but I thought comparatively "Tough Act to Follow" was a more whimsical choice, more difficult (not just b/c of piece count) and overall a bit stronger as a puzzle. (Ok, ok, I already admitted to putting that in my top 3 puzzle list...)