Frances Farrell loves children. Having chosen to stay at home during her child's early years, she enthusiastically opened a small nursery school to care for her own child and five other preschoolers. In the entry-way stand a bookcase with six numbered compartments (numbered top to bottom, then left to right), each assigned to a different child for his or her possesions, including a favorite toy.

From the information given, determine each child's full name (one girl's first name is Janet), shelf assignment, and favorite toy (one is a puzzle).

1. Kevin and the Baker child, who are the two tallest children, are assigned the two top shelves, while the Lorenz child, who is the third tallest, has a shelf with a higher number than Mark's.
   
   
2. Holly has a higher shelf than the Collins child, who has a shelf located immediately to the right of the one containing a picture book.
   
   
3. The shelf belonging to the Forbes child and the one which holds a box of crayons are both even-numbered shelves.
   
   
4. Darren's toy and the set of blocks sit side-by-side on shelves that are above the fire engine.
   
   
5. The teddy bear is on the shelf directly below Monica's and directly above the McKenna child's.

In trying to solve this problem, the first difficulty was in trying to work out how the 6 shelves/compartments were arranged in the bookcase, and more to the point how the compartments were to be numbered. I ended up assuming that the system was that given by Jun in the previous comment, ie

1 4
2 5
3 6

(this seems to comply with the given info that the compartments are 'numbered top to bottom, then left to right', as well as the information in the problem referring to 'the two top shelves' - although it wasn't fully clear to me that the numbering couldn't have been

1 2
3 4
5 6)

After making this first step, the problem did come out fairly easily. In fact the solution posted by sam in the first comment is correct, except for the compartment numbers.

Here is the answer:

Compartment 1 (top left)
Monica Baker
Puzzle

Compartment 2 (center left)
Darren Forbes
Teddy Bear

Compartment 3 (lower left)
Mark McKenna
Picture Book

Compartment 4 (top right)
Kevin Farrell
Box of Crayons

Compartment 5 (center right)
Holly Lorenz
Set of Blocks

Compartment 6 (lower right)
Janet Collins
Fire Engine

(Incidentally, the solution I had arrived at before reading the previous comments was flawed - I had switched Mark and Janet and had come up with Janet McKenna in #3 with the Picture Book and Mark Collins in #6 with the Fire Engine. Reading the other comments made me realize my error. So, perhaps we can call this solution a joint effort!)

Thanks for another fun puzzle DJ :)

Posted by John Reid on 2003-09-06 21:48:48