Customer Reviews

Cat's Cradle: A Book of String Figures (Book and String)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We bought this on vacation for my five year old daughter, and it turned out to be the perfect gift. The pictures are clear--not just diagrams with arrows, but pictures of the hands, showing every little step. The string is included--an important point, since they fuse the ends of the string rather than tying them, making it much easier for little hands. Jesse was better at learning by doing than reading the diagrams, but she was able to use them to figure out what she was doing wrong once she had it more or less right.

The book contains five string patterns: Cup and Saucer, Eiffel Tower, Witch's Broom, Cat's Cradle, and Jacob's Ladder; though in fact Cup and Saucer is a stage on the way to Eiffel Tower. We found that Jesse could do Cup and Saucer and Witch's Broom just fine, though Eiffel Tower was a little trickier. Cat's Cradle was doable with some coaching--made a bit harder by the fact that it's a two person figure. Jacob's Ladder, however, is much more complicated, and will take an adult quite a few minutes to master.

Most of us, myself included, have done some string figures as children, usually Cat's Cradle, and I have to say I got as much fun out of this as Jesse. But Jesse had fun too--the string is brightly coloured and the string figures are good, strong simple shapes. It was days before she stopped showing off her "Cup and Saucer" to us!

This is a fabulous book with bright colors and fun artwork. The directions are easy to follow and everyone can be successful when trying these string games. I have used this book to teach large groups of people how to play string games and they loved it. This is a good book for anyone interested in learning basic string games. The book came with a string to make the designs, so you don't have to make one.

Doing the string figures became a fad at my six year old daughter's school, so of course she had to learn to do them. Within a few hours of getting this book she taught herself all five of the included figures, and quickly became facile enough with the process to pick up new one's from her friends. The book definitely exceeded my expectations.

Got this 'used/3rd party' for a great price and we love this. It's got all the old ones from when I grew up and couldn't remember, and my 9-year-old taught herself and is teaching me.
Great binding. Excellent thing to do while waiting and for fine motor skills development. Good quiet time activity. Well worth it.

While I can't follow the simplest of written directions, apparently, my 10 year old daughter can. She sat down with the book an the string and within minutes, was showing me all sorts of different cats cradles, including a very complicated looking Jacob's Ladder. My only wish is that they would include more than one string for the cat's cradle as well, it's a kids book, and kids lose things :)

I use this book at home with my children but I use it even more in ESL classes. Learning a language is much easier when you're DOING something. The string figures have been a good activity to use in learning to give directions, explain, practice short sentences and even to use as an attention getter for a grammar lesson.
As mentioned in other reviews, both adults and children enjoy them and string figures are universally known and appreciated.

This is a good book for young children, it is clearly illustrated. The hardest message to convey in string games is the "how to", this book does this welll. The binding allow the book to stay open while you are trying the technique described, unfortunately the figure shoe one move per page and the pages need to be turned... hopefully by another person. The figures are very basic and easy.

I bought this book to refresh my memory so I could teach my 9 and 6 yo daughters the Cat's Cradle. We all took turns playing with it even my husband. It is easy and entertaining.

When my grandaughter visits, she loves me to play cats cradle with her. Plus she has learned to do many of the string figures. It is a challenge and a fun accomplishment. We have many times misplaced the string and I end up buying the book again just for the string. Does anyone know where we can buy extra strings? I know we can use any string; but we like the nice colored one that comes with the book, and I was hoping that someone, somewhere would have these strings available.

I never thought my daughter would enjoy the same simple games I did as a child, but I bought this book and she hasn't put the sting down since! Great for hand-eye coordination and also problem solving. Gives kids a sense of accomplishment. Not to mention quiet time for the parents (once they learn how). Highly recommended for girls 6 - 9 years old!!!! Thanks Anne Akers Johnson for bringing back a bit of my childhood! I couldn't believe my fingers remembered Jacobs Ladder!