Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing, Dueling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, and Pretending. (Oxford Paperback Reference) [Paperback]

Iona Opie (Author), the late Peter Opie (Author)

Book Description

Series: Oxford Paperback Reference | Publication Date: April 4, 1985

This record of children's outdoor games played in the street, park, playground, or wasteland is drawn from the contributions of 10,000 children in England, Scotland and Wales. It reveals that the games children take pleasure in when out on their own are usually those learnt from each other - not from adults. They are games in which children may deliberately scare each other, ritually hurt each other, take foolish risks, play ten against one, and yet in which they consistenly observe their own sense of fair play. This volume explains in detail how a large number of street games are played, and gives the rhymes and sayings children repeat while playing them, together with their different regional names. It also contains notes on their individual histories, and compares apparently recently invented games with amusements in Elizabethan, medieval and even classical times, while numerous analogues from other countries indicate the extent of their distribution. Iona and Peter Opie have also written "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes", "The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book", "The Oxford Book of Children's Verse", "The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren", "Classic Fairy Tales", "A Nursery Companion" and "The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse". Iona Opie is also the author of "The Singing Game" and "People in the Playground".

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The Opies have compiled the most complete and the most sympathetic, also the most sensible account of what children prefer to do on their own.' -- Country Life 'It is a work of serious anthropology and sociology ... but unlike most works concerned with these disciplines, it is consistently readable, always humane, and sometimes very funny.' -- New Statesman 'A fascinating book, the product of many years' immensely detailed and original research, which is bound to become the standard work upon the history and modern practice of street games.' -- New Society 'Fascinating research ... I hope that the publication of this book will revive the debate about the kinds of games our children play.' -- David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Iona Archibald Opie was born in 1923. During the Second World War, she met and married Peter Opie. Together they became a renowned husband-and-wife team of folklorists with a particular interest in children's toys, games and literature, working from their home in Hampshire and conducting primary fieldwork all over the United Kingdom. Their remarkable collection of children's books and ephemera was purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1988. They were the authors of over 30 books including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1952) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). Iona Opie lives in Hampshire. Peter Mason Opie (1918-1982) was a specialist in children's literature. He met and married Iona Archibold during the Second World War, and together they became a renowned husband-and-wife team of folklorists with a particular interest in children's toys, games and literature, working from their home in Hampshire and conducting primary fieldwork all over the United Kingdom. Their remarkable collection of children's books and ephemera was purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1988. They were the authors of over 30 books including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1952) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 4, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192814893
• ISBN-13: 978-0192814890
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,322,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Actual observations of how real kids play, November 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing, Dueling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, and Pretending. (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)

This book will help you regain your faith in children and respect for their games. It has been the cornerstone of my work for twenty years. It should not be out of print. Accurate, honest, direct observations of children at play, without the constraints of adult supervision, outside the boundaries of their playgrounds.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some information about the book..., January 14, 2008

By 

Redabook "Matt" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Children's Games in Street and Playground (Hardcover)

This is an interesting book that talks about the different kinds of games that children play, all categorized and analyzed. You are sure to find some of your favorites as well as discover some you've never heard of. Here are some reviews about this title, in case you are interested in learning more about it:

"On the surface it is an exhaustive record of the games children play when out in the street, park, playground, or wasteland, but the book, for the general reader, is primarily a journey, not so much into nostalgia, as into a sharper recollection of the uncramped imagination and brilliant nightmare of childhood."--the Guardian

"What these two remarkable authors do is understand the actual playing, the actual delight of children's games. Somewhere in the 350 pages of this book you are sure to find the game you liked the best in your own childhood. It will be there in all its varieties, under its various names, indexed, classified and described, presented as a living thing, not as a curio, and not as something out of the antique shop of folklore."--Country life.