Acrostic (puzzle) facts for kids

An acrostic is a special kind of word puzzle. It's a bit like a crossword puzzle, but it uses a unique "acrostic" style. These puzzles usually have two main parts that work together.

The first part gives you a list of clues, often labeled with letters like A, B, C, and so on. Each clue has blank spaces for you to fill in the letters of its answer. These blanks also have numbers.

The second part is a long series of numbered blank spaces and regular spaces. This represents a hidden quote or a secret message. Your job is to figure out the answers to the clues and then use the numbers to fill those letters into the main puzzle grid.

Sometimes, there's an extra hint! If you take the first letter of each correct answer from the clues (starting from clue A and going down the list), they will spell out something important. This might be the author of the hidden quote and the title of the work it came from. This can be a super helpful way to solve the puzzle!

How to Solve an Acrostic Puzzle

Let's look at an example to see how these puzzles work.

Understanding the Clues

Imagine you have these two clues in the first part of your puzzle:

Notice that each blank space for the answer has a number below it. These numbers tell you where the letters from your answer will go in the main puzzle.

The Main Puzzle Grid

The second part of the puzzle starts completely blank, like this:

Each blank space here also has a number. These numbers match the numbers from the clues.

Filling in the Letters

Let's say you figure out that the answer to clue A is JAPAN. You would then take each letter from "JAPAN" and place it into the main puzzle grid at the spot indicated by its number.

So, if:

• J is number 8
• A is number 5
• P is number 17
• A is number 2
• N is number 14

The main puzzle would start to fill up like this:

Using the Puzzle to Help Solve Clues

Now, look at the main puzzle. You can see that letters 16 and 17 form a two-letter word that ends with P. This word must be UP. So, you know letter 16 is a U. You can then go back to your clue list and fill in the U for the clue that has 16 as one of its numbers.

Similarly, a three-letter word starting with A (like the word at 5/6/7) could be and, any, or all. You might need to solve more clues before you can be sure which word it is.

If you then solve clue B and find the answer is IDLE, you can fill those letters into the main puzzle. This might help you figure out the word at 5/6/7 is AND, and the next word starts with JI. With these new letters, you might even start to recognize the hidden quote, like "Jack and Jill went up the hill."

The numbers in the main puzzle are often followed by letters that show which clue answer they came from. This helps you easily switch back and forth between the clues and the main puzzle grid as you solve.

Images for kids

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  An acrostic puzzle published in State Magazine in 1986

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  In this primal acrostic the words are pictured instead of described. When the seven objects have been rightly guessed and written one below another, the initial letters will spell the surname of a famous man. (published in St. Nicholas Magazine (1873)