Help the Fish Find the Treasure — Level 1

The first rung of a three-step ladder. The fish and the treasure chest appear again at level 2 and level 3, on grids that get denser each time while the picture stays exactly the same. Keeping the characters fixed is the point: when the only thing that changes is the maze, a child can feel the difficulty move rather than having to work out what is different.

This is a level 1 maze: 8 cells across, with corridors a shade under two centimeters wide. That is roomy enough that a five year old's pencil control is never the thing holding them up, so the page is purely about finding the way.

The way through runs 27 squares and turns 14 times, with 7 dead ends branching off it. The grid is carved so that exactly one route connects the start to the finish: no loops, no second way round, and no corner walled off from the rest. Every square can be reached, and a child who follows the route carefully will always get there.