Title: Use Your Inside Voice
Prompt: The meta answer is a well-known children’s novel.
Answer: THE SECRET GARDEN
Explanation: something strange is going on with four long across entries. To make the letters work with the crossing downs, the words ROSE (in MICROSECONDS), RAIN (in EXTRAINNINGS), ZEN (in JAZZENSEMBLE), and HERB (in BUTCHERBLOCK) have to be replaced with SHHH (or just SHH, for ZEN). These four words are all types of gardens, but SHHH! Don’t tell anyone! It’s a secret garden! And thus we find our way to the meta answer: THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
There were 97 correct answers – second only to last month’s record! – and three incorrect submissions this month. Two of the incorrect submissions were for a children’s picture book I did not know existed called Shhh! In fact, there seem to be several picture books with this title. Almost there, but you need that second step, especially since ZEN only gives you SHH.
Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Rob Tanner of Oakland, MI! The prize this month, as it is every month, is a copy of a thematically apt book embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. I didn’t want to go with the obvious choice, so for inspiration I looked to the other famous “Secret Garden,” i.e., the Bruce Springsteen song. A side effect of this puzzle which I did not anticipate is that “Secret Garden” has been stuck in my head ever since I got Shannon and Carina’s submission, which was… *checks notes*… oh right four months ago. Anyway, back in 2014, Bruce Springsteen was promoting his own children’s picture book (Outlaw Pete), and he did an interview where he talked about his favorite books of all time. So, in honor of the other “Secret Garden,” and because Outlaw Pete didn’t seem like the right choice, the prize this month is one of those books: the short story collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor. Congratulations, Rob!
You can read Ben Chenoweth’s blog post about this month’s contest over at Crossword Fiend, where you can also leave a comment and rate the puzzle.
Dubious Honors
This month’s Tick-Tock Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received first, goes to Christopher R., whose answer came in at 9:26 AM EST on March 1. The White Rabbit Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received last, goes to Kaye B., whose answer came in at 9:53 PM EST on March 5. I have no actual prizes to hand out to these solvers, they just get the satisfaction of BOOKending this month’s contest. Well done!
Can you beat their times next month??
Thank you to everyone who submitted an answer to March’s contest! And thank you to Carina da Rosa and Shannon Rapp for this fun puzzle, ACL’s first collaboration! If you are interested in constructing a puzzle for ACL, please visit our Submit a Crossword page. See you in April!
Ex libris Ariadne
Ariadne's Crossword Library 