Great Big Book of Children's Games: Over 450 Indoor & Outdoor Games for Kids (Ages 3-12) [Paperback]

Debra Wise (Author), Sandy Forrest (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2003 | Age Level: 3 and up

Games play a crucial role in a child's development, helping children to discover and understand the world around them. Parents are always on the lookout for new games and activities to play with their kids.

The Great Big Book of Children's Games features more than 450 indoor and outdoor games for kids.

Arranged according to appropriate agegroup, the games run the gamut in theme and mood. There are games designed for quiet times and intellectual stimulation as well as those that contribute to physical development, such as strength and wrestling games and races and relays. This book presents parents with a vast array of games for children of all ages, including:

• Card games
• Word games
• Sidewalk and blacktop games
• Tabletop games
• Party games, road games, and more

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The perfect antidote for rainy-day sulks and backseat boredom

Your kids are buzzing bundles of energy, ever eager for new experiences and new challenges. And one of your toughest jobs as a parent is finding ways to channel kids' energies that promote healthy development while keeping them entertained. Good news, your job just got a little easier.

Great for car trips, rainy days, and even power outages, the Great Big Book of Children's Games is a treasury of games and activities for all occasions, every setting and every mood. You'll find indoor games and outdoor games, party games and solo games, sidewalk games, beach games, ball games and water games. There are games that stimulate young minds and those that promote physical development. You'll find skill-building games and games designed to sharpen individual faculties, card games and word games, and an abundance of pencil-and-paper games. And to help you do your part to keep our highways safe (and your sanity intact), there's an entire section devoted to games to be played while on the road.

Fair weather or foul, the Great Big Book of Children's Games helps you keep the peace and banish bad moods with:

• 450 indoor and outdoor games for pre-school to middle-school age kids arranged by age group
• Games for every occasion, setting and number of players
• Solo games, team games, party games, and family games, many including innovative twists on old favorites
• Colorful text, 375 illustrations, and amusing game trivia that add to the fun and make the book easy to use

Debra Wise is a writer specializing in women's and children's topics, and has written for the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and GQ.

Sandy Forrest has designed and illustrated over 40 books and won a Parent's Choice Award for Illustration.

About the Author

Debra Wise is a freelance writer specializing in women's and children's topics. She has written for magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and GQ and also for the New York Times Style section.

Sandy Forrest has designed and illustrated more than 40 books and won a Parent's Choice Award for Illustration.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill (October 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071422463
• ISBN-13: 978-0071422468
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Activities

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Board Games Editor at BellaOnline.com, December 15, 2005

By 

Megan Romer (Lafayette, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Big Book of Children's Games: Over 450 Indoor & Outdoor Games for Kids (Ages 3-12) (Paperback)

The Great Big Book of Children's Games is full of fun games of all sorts: Ball Games, Water Games, Chase Games, Card Games, and so on. Many of the games are well-known childhood classics, but many of them are either foreign or totally new.

The book offers lots of ways to play versions of popular games with a make-your-own version. Naturally, it doesn't tell you explicitly, "Don't buy game X, you can make your own!", but it does give great instructions on how to make paper playing boards for games like Shut the Box, Beetle (like a drawing version of Cootie), and also how to get the most out of a game like Checkers.

As far as outside games, it can't be beat, there are dozens of variations on classics like hopscotch, hide-and-seek, and that eternal favorite: tag!

This book is a great gift idea for Moms, Teachers, Daycare Providers, and it's a great one to leave around for the teenaged babysitter if you're going out and you don't want the kids to spend the evening in front of the TV. Wonderful!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great book!, April 29, 2005

By 

Sarah from PA "sja1" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Big Book of Children's Games: Over 450 Indoor & Outdoor Games for Kids (Ages 3-12) (Paperback)

I do not own this book, but I put it on my "wish list". I currently have it checked-out from my local library for the second time. What a wonderful book for such a great price! I plan to use it for birthday party activities, kids church activities, etc. This book is well worth the price!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a keeper, August 8, 2007

By 

C. Harris "book'em danno" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Big Book of Children's Games: Over 450 Indoor & Outdoor Games for Kids (Ages 3-12) (Paperback)

This is such a great book! I was looking for some activities to keep the kids from being bored. What a wonderful surprise! This book was way more than I expected. There are tons of activities--card games, outdoor games, pen and paper games, travel games, table top games, blacktop games, and much more. As we looked through the book I remembered some of these from my own childhood, but I probably wouldn't have recalled them without this book to prompt the memories. I was very pleased and the kids love it. There are so many games that they will not be bored for a long time.