Acrostic X-9


ACROSTIC X MINUS SEVEN

Joanne Schott


(In Looking Glass Land, things go in reverse.
The next acrostic, should there be one, will be X minus eight.)


You will need to print the acrostic in order to solve it. When the diagram is filled in, it will contain a quotation from a published work. Numbered squares in the diagram correspond to the numbered blanks to be filled in with the answers to the clues. The first letters of each answer, when read downwards, will spell the name of the author and the title of the work from which the quotation comes. The letter following the number in each square indicates the clue whose answer includes the letter to be entered in that square. Nearly all the clues have something to do with children's literature. You do not need to know more than about 8 (some say 6) answers to begin. As skeletons of words begin to form in the diagram and some initial letters of author and title are in place, work back and forth. Soon the parts of the puzzle will solve one another. Answers will be posted on the site on August 2, 2002.

Note: Depending upon your printer and page setup options, some of the right hand columns of the acrostic may not print. If the printed version does not match what you see on your screen, try going into the print setup menu and change the page orientation from Portrait to Landscape. If your printer supports output scaling (and your eyesight is good!) you can instead try reducing the output scale from 100% (try 90% to start) until all of the columns appear on the printed copy.

1S 2E 3L 4A   5B 6T 7C   8M 9F 10X 11AA   12J 13G 14I   15P 16A
17X 18H   19W 20Q 21R 22S   23J 24H 25O   26X 27AA 28L 29T 30M 31S 32H 33D
34P 35O   36B 37W 38U   39A 40W 41Y 42H 43S 44R 45I 46P 47X 48L   49W 50H
  51A 52G 53N   54P 55I 56O 57L 58K 59H 60BB 61D   62C 63Y   64AA 65J 66X
67U 68P 69L 70Z 71E   72R 73K 74W 75AA   76H 77D 78Q 79F 80W 81T 82X 83I 84Y
  85W 86B   87C 88J 89O 90AA 91A 92L   93F 94M 95BB 96P   97W   98R 99Z
100G 101T 102R 103AA 104H   105R 106O 107U   108X 109A   110J 111P 112BB 113L 114I 115G 116H
  117S 118G 119A 120U   121B   122Y 123V 124W   125H 126AA 127C 128A 129O 130T 131BB  
132K 133H 134X 135Z 136B 137W   138C 139Q 140V   141E 142R 143AA 144L 145D 146K 147X 148G  
149U 150R 151H 152O   153AA 154F 155W   156A 157L 158D 159P 160W   161O 162R 163I 164H 165T
166C 167W   168B 169X   170AA 171H 172J 173L 174T 175G 176Q 177D 178V   179P 180O 181X 182N
  183A 184B 185H   186J 187BB 188T 189I 190X   191T 192AA 193B 194C   195J 196H 197Y  
198BB 199D 200P   201AA 202B 203V 204Z 205L 206T 207J 208O   209G 210E 211U   212B 213R 214V
215T 216M 217H 218A 219P 220C   221T 222W 223L   224E 225X 226H 227I   228S 229R   230V
231G 232Y   233A 234O 235V 236M   237S 238AA 239W 240X   241J 242E 243R 244M 245T 246A  
247I 248B 249G 250L   251Q 252C   253T 254O 255F 256H   257I 258AA 259J 260W 261Y  > 262D
263L 264M   265A 266F 267X 268G   269C 270E 271H 272K 273N 274D            

 

A ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  119 183 265  51  91   4 128 218 246 156 109  16 233  39
R.M. Ballantyne's simple parody of John Bunyan's classic; The … (2 wds)
B ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  121 168 136 212  36 193 202 184 248   5  86
… and Cousin Cramchild, Kingsley's satire of Peter Parley, found in The Water Babies (2 wds)
C ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___  
  138  62 252 269   7  87 166 127 220 194
"Wash me and comb me and lay me down softly" said the … of the Well (English folk tale) (2 wds)
D ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
  274 158 262  61  77 199  33 145 177
Horatio Alger's books presumably showed poor boys… (3 wds)
E ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  210 224   2  71 242 141 270
… Forest, Sussex, setting of Barbara Willard's Mantlemass novels
F ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___  
  266   9 255 154  79  93
Field, Isadora or Pye
G ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___  
  118  52 231 148 268 209 175  13 249 115 100
Meteorological comment by R. Briggs's Father Christmas as he prepares for Christmas Eve
H ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
   50 271  18 164 116  24 217 185 125 226  32  42 171 196  59 104 256 133  76 151
Last item in the Jumblies' shopping spree (5 wds)
I ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
  189 227 257 163 247  14 114  83  55  45 
Victorian artist, noted painter of birds, whose other work appears often in these acrostics, including this one (2 wds)
J ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  241 207  88  65 259  23 172  12 110 186 195
Mainstay of the curious and charming family in Tove Jansson's fantasies
K ___ ___ ___ ___ ___  
  132 272  58 146  73 
Creator of Max and Moritz, mischievous comic characters in German popular literature
L ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
   28 223 263  92 205 144  48  69 157   3  57 173 113 250
What her dog was doing when Mother Hubbard returned from the cobbler's (3 wds)
M ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  216  30  94 264 244 236   8
Surname of brother and sister residing in Great Camomile Street (Opie)
N ___ ___ ___
  273  53 182<
Boys' weekly paper founded 1910, featured the adventures of Tom Merry
O ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
   35 180 234 106  56 208 161 129  89 254 152  25
Margery Fisher's one-woman reviewing journal (2 wds)
P ___ ___ ___ A ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  200 219  54   179  46  34  96 159 111  68  15
Occupation for Curly Locks (3 wds plus the given article) (3 wds)
Q ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  139 251  78 176  20
Bob …, Canadian TV's Friendly Giant, who read books to children on every show
R ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  105 162 150 213  21 142  98  72 243  44 102 229
Los Angeles historic site celebrated in Leo Politi's book about Pedro (2 wds)
S ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
   31 117  22   1 228 237  43
Ben …, hero of Philippa Pearce's A Dog So Small
T ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  191 130 206 221  81 101 253 245 215 165   6  29 188 174
British writer of adventure stories for girls, more than 125 between 1894 and her death in 1941 (2 wds)
U ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
  149 107  38 120 211  67
The son who seldom won a princess or defeated a villain
V ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  235 140 230 123 214 203 178
… and Fairies, sequel to Puck of Pook's Hill
W ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  137 239  37 260 155 167  19  49 160 222 124  85  74  40  97  80 
When not making tea in his hat, the Old Man on the Border did this (4 wds)
X ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  190 181 267  10 134  26  17 108  82 169 225  47  66 147 240
American children's magazine, 1827-1929 (2 wds)
Y ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
  197  41 122 261  63 232  84 
Owner of the Cheshire cat
Z ___ ___ ___ ___ 
  135  99  70 204
Could apply in different ways to tea or cake
AA ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
   103 258 126  64 170  90  75 192  11 201 143 153  27 238
A possible definition for Befana (2 wds)
BB ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
    95 187 198 112 131  60
Title of Peter Sis's book about the largest monitor lizard, the … dragon

Volume 4, Issue 2, The Looking Glass, 2000

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"
Acrostic X-7" ©Joanne Schott, 2000
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