by Kit Williams
It was Williams' book Masquerade that sent thousands of people scurrying around Britain in 1981 in search of a buried, golden, bejeweled rabbit pendant worth nearly $36,000. The book contained clues to the whereabouts of the prize, found in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire in March 1982 by a man using the pseudonym Ken Thomas. This volume's puzzle involves its own title. Whoever figures out what it is and most imaginatively communicates the answer to Williams—without using the actual word or words it contains—will win a mahogany bee box and a gold bee valued at about $10,000. The book includes 16 of Williams' colorfully intricate drawings, with an obtuse story line that involves a beekeeper, the four seasons, a cat named Trafalgar, a lion who has eaten the entire London Symphony Orchestra—instruments and all—for breakfast, and plenty of bees. Titles worth mulling over are A Taste of Honey, Hives, The House of Wax or, in recognition of the fact that Masquerade sold more than a million copies, Kit's Bonanza II. (Knopf, $10.95)
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