120 large print grids, Beginner Volume. Solve the puzzle, then colour the picture behind it.
Kakuro 2-in-1 Puzzle Book (+Coloring)
Most puzzle books give you a grid and a blank page. This one gives you both halves of an evening. Behind every single one of the 120 kakuro grids sits an original full-page illustration, drawn in black and white line art so it can be coloured in once the numbers are done.
Kakuro is a number puzzle solved by logic rather than arithmetic. Each run of white squares has to add up to the number in its clue, using the digits 1 to 9 with no digit repeating inside a run. That is the whole rule set. If you can solve a sudoku you can learn kakuro in a few minutes, and most people find the first one clicks faster than they expected.
It is sometimes called cross sums, and it is the second most popular pencil puzzle in Japan after sudoku.
A puzzle asks you to narrow things down. Colouring asks you to open things up. Doing one straight after the other, on the same page, uses two quite different kinds of attention — and the second one is the reward for finishing the first. It is also entirely screen-free, which is most of the reason people tell us they bought it.
The 120 illustrations are all original, drawn for this book, and none of them appear anywhere else. Large print throughout, on paper heavy enough for pencils and fine-liners.
Every grid was generated by our own software and individually verified to have one unique solution. None of them are reprinted from anywhere.
“This is so much more than a puzzle book! It's a wonderful combination of challenge, creativity, relaxation and pure enjoyment. An absolute gem of a book — I highly recommend it. Perfect gift.”
Nathalie — verified purchase, Amazon.ca, September 2026
People who already like sudoku and want something with a different shape to it. People who colour and would like something to do first. Anyone buying a present for a puzzle solver, which is how a good share of these books are bought. And anyone deliberately putting a screen down for an hour.
Intermediate and Expert volumes of the kakuro series are in production, along with a separate line of colouring books with no puzzles in them at all.