Randy liked to give his children challenging games instead of television and video games. He incorporated the use of rebus puzzles into everyday life for his kids.

One day he made a rebus for them to try and decode. It was set up like this:

Some items were lying all over a church. The church was burning down, and this is the fate of the items.

Item one: Found near the front row pews. It was in the fire, and was lost.
Item two: Found near the front door. It was also in the fire, and was lost.
Item three: Found by the bell in the bell tower. Was away from the fire, and was saved.
Item four: Found in the bathroom. Was surrounded by fire, and was lost.

It took a while, but his children finally decoded the rebus. What is the answer?

The following are famous books and their authors. Letters have been taken from each book and each author. From the letter list below fill in each letter to give the names of the books and authors.

An-e-s and D-m-ns
D-n -ro-n

Pe- Se-at-r-
S-ep-en K-n-

C-r-nic-es of N-r--a
C - L-wi-

A F-re-e-l to A-m-
E-n-st H-mi-gw-y

A M-sq-e of Me-c-
Ro-e-t Fr-s-

T-e Hu-t for R-d Oc-o-e-
T-m C-a-cy

Bl-ac-e-s
Jo-n Gri-h-m

aaaaaaabbbeeeeeegghhhhhiillllmnnnnoooorrrrrrssssttttuwwyy

I can be hard, I can be soft. I can scratch my fellow self, or I can be scratched. I'm not always as strong as another version of me. I can be used as a form or communication, as well as presents or luxury. Inside and outside the earth's crust I am made, and waiting times range from one day to millions of years. I come in many colors when I am solid, and I can also be grouped together to make another common solid. Controversy has been made about health concerns in which I am removed from the earth, from disease to sudden death. While a certain few are mentioned above, I grow constantly under your feet. Little do you know you always walk on me, even when you don't try. Mountains, mines, I can be found anywhere, my rarity ranges from diamond to the most common pencil. I am collected, sold, extracted everyday. You use me so commonly that you may not realize I am what I am. I have many different names, hundreds at least, but I am categorized under one name. What am I?

In each sentence a word is concealed, such as the word no in sentence five. If you can find the buried words and read them in order from 1 to 6, they will form a well-known proverb.

1.The word buried here has only one letter.
2.Did you find a jelly roll in Gaskin's Bakery?
3.It's the best one I've ever seen.
4.The rug at her stairway was made in India.
5.He's an old friend.
6.Amos sold his bicycle to a friend.

Billy recently won a contest to be on a hit trivia show, called "Trivillions", where the object of the game is to answer as many trivia questions as you can, and the more you answer, the more money you get.

Billy was psyched. He went to the store to buy a book on scarce facts. He found only two books. One was made in 2006 and the other was made in 1998. Since the old one was cheaper he went with that book.

He aced every question. The final question was, "How many oceans are there?" Easy one, he thought. When he gave his answer, "Four oceans", he got the question wrong! Why would he have not gotten the question wrong if he went with a current trivia book?

In each sentence, an animal is concealed. The first sentence has dog concealed. Can you find the others?

1. What shall I do, Gertrude?
2. Asking nutty questions can be most annoying.
3. A gold key is not a common key.
4. Horace tries in school to be a very good boy.
5. People who drive too fast are likely to be arrested.
6. Did I ever tell you, Bill, I once found a dollar?
7. John came late to his arithmetic class.
8. I enjoy listening to music at night.