BrightKidz Library
Subjects
The riddle in the article, drawn out Three things side by side. On the left a large sewing needle standing on its point, with a long oval eye near the top and a thread looped through it and trailing away. In the middle a human eye, an almond outline with a round iris, a dark pupil and four lashes. A dotted line joins the needle's eye to the real eye, with a dot on the way, because both are called an eye and only one of them can see. On the right a banana with its peel starting to open, the example the article builds its own riddle from.

Make a Riddle for a Friend

About 4 minutes

A riddle only works if every clue in it is true. The trick is describing a familiar thing so exactly that your friend pictures something else first — right up until the last clue gives it away.

What is a riddle?

A riddle is a question worded on purpose to be tricky. It describes something in a roundabout way, so you have to work out what is really being talked about. Good riddles play with words.

What has an eye, but cannot see?

The answer is a needle. It works because "eye" means two different things, and the riddle lets you think of the wrong one first.

Build your riddle

  1. Choose a subject. Something familiar — an animal, an object, a place. A cat, a book, the school playground.
  2. List what you know about it. Everything. What color is it? What does it do? What is it for? For a cat: furry, meows, sleeps a lot, catches mice.
  3. Turn each fact into a clue. Do not say it straight out. "Furry" could become "I wear a coat I never take off."
  4. Put the clues together. A few sentences is plenty. Save the easiest clue for last.
  5. Test it on someone. If nobody can get it, add a clearer clue. If everyone gets it instantly, take one away.

Watch one being built

Here is the whole process for a banana:

And the finished riddle:

I am the color of sunshine and I grow in a crowd. Monkeys love me, and you must peel off my yellow coat to reach the sweet part. What am I?

Notice that no clue is a lie. Every one of them is true about a banana — they are just true in a way that makes you think of something else first. That is what makes a riddle fair.

Now you try

Pick an object in the room you are in and work through the five steps. Here is a shape to start from if you need one:

I am [color] and [shape].
I am used for [purpose].
You can find me [location].

What am I?

Once you have built one riddle, the shape above works for anything in the room — go puzzle somebody.