CM Magazine: The Big Book of Games.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VI Number 1 . . . . September 3, 1999

The Big Book of Games.

Dorothy Stott.
New York, NY: Dutton Children's Books (Distributed in Canada by McClelland & Stewart Inc.), 1998.
64 pp., cloth, $25.99.
ISBN 0-525-45454-3.

Subject Heading:
Games-Juvenile literature.

Preschool - grade 3 / Ages 4 - 8.
Review by Lorraine Douglas.

** /4

excerpt:

To begin playing many of the games in this book, you and your friends will need to choose one of the group to be It. It has to do something different from the rest of the group, like searching when everyone else is hiding, or chasing when everyone else is running.

This collection of 64 illustrated games would appeal to children at the primary level. Two introductory sections explain how to choose fairly who should go first and how to divide easily a group into teams. The book is then divided into sections on outdoor games; party and indoor games; car games; and singing games. All of the games are simple, clearly explained and require a minimum of equipment to play.
The outdoor games include several classic games, and the explanation of how to play marbles is quite useful as it is often requested in the spring at our library. Other games from the schoolyard include Jump Rope rhymes, Jacks, Hopscotch, Dodge ball and Keepaway. The indoor games are very suitable for party planners and include Sardines, Musical Chairs, and Buzz. For one game - Milk Caps - the author mentions that the caps were once used to seal milk bottles. It would have been useful here to mention that pogs are the modern equivalent. The Car Game section includes Find the Alphabet and the very American Fifty States game. A measly five singing games are included in the final section. And three of the songs - I'm a Little Teapot, Do your Ears Hang Low, and Head and Shoulders - are commonly found in many finger play collections.
The book's title book is misleading. "Big Book" implies a very large volume with a wide variety of games, and this book is certainly not a large compendium of games. Not a first purchase for libraries, the volume, nevertheless, could be useful where materials on games are in high demand.

Recommended With Reservations.

Lorraine Douglas is the Youth Services Coordinator at the Winnipeg Public Library, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - September 3, 1999.