I. Identify the children and the gifts.
- Children: Pippa, Eddie, Lucy, Augie
- Gifts: White Chocolate, Hot Cross Buns, Milk Chocolate, Marshmallows
We need to match each child to exactly one gift.
I List the clues:
- Pippa does not like chocolate.
- Therefore, Pippa cannot get White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate. She must get either Hot Cross Buns or Marshmallows.
- The person with the shortest name likes White Chocolate.
- Among Pippa (5 letters), Eddie (5), Lucy (4), and Augie (5), Lucy has the shortest name.
- Hence, Lucy gets White Chocolate.
- Augie does not like marshmallows.
- Therefore, Augie cannot receive Marshmallows.
With Lucy assigned White Chocolate, the remaining gifts (Hot Cross Buns, Milk Chocolate, Marshmallows) must go to Pippa, Eddie, and Augie.
III. Narrow down the possibilities.
- Pippa, from clue (1), does not like chocolate (of any type).
- So Pippa cannot have White Chocolate (already given to Lucy) or Milk Chocolate.
- That leaves Hot Cross Buns or Marshmallows for Pippa.
- From clue (3), Augie cannot have Marshmallows.
- Therefore, if Pippa were to take Marshmallows, Augie cannot have them, and that would force Eddie to take something else. But let’s see:
- If Pippa took Marshmallows, then only Milk Chocolate and Hot Cross Buns remain for Eddie and Augie. However, we know Pippa cannot have Milk Chocolate anyway (by clue 1), so she’d be forced into Marshmallows. That would leave Hot Cross Buns and Milk Chocolate for Eddie and Augie.
- But there’s no direct contradiction here—yet we also see that Pippa could equally take Hot Cross Buns, in which case Eddie or Augie would take Marshmallows. Let’s track it more directly:
- IV. Assign gifts logically.
- Lucy → White Chocolate (shortest name, from clue 2).
- Pippa → ?
- Not White Chocolate, not Milk Chocolate → Hot Cross Buns or Marshmallows.
- Augie → ?
- Not Marshmallows (clue 3) → Milk Chocolate or Hot Cross Buns.
- FINAL ANSWER
- Pippa: Hot Cross Buns
- Eddie: Marshmallows
- Lucy: White Chocolate
- Augie: Milk Chocolate
