Journey to Gameland: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children's Book [Paperback]

Ben Buchanan (Author), Carol J. Adams (Author), Susan Allison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

Take a journey through your favorite book and transform it into a board game! Choose your characters, design your board, and create obstacles and other fun activities all according to what happens in your favorite book. Learn how to take the joy of reading to another level and discover your own creativity.

Eleven-year-old Ben Buchanan, who created a board game based on the popular Harry Potter books, provides advice for all children who would like to turn their favorite book into a board game. Along with his co-authors, he offers a step-by-step process, with suggestions for parents, librarians, and teachers, on how to help children transform their favorite book into a board game.

The book shows how you can have hours of fun creating the board game--and then have lots more hours of fun playing! Journey to Gameland encourages children to develop their own creativity.

Journey to Gameland and My Year with Harry Potter are part of a series designed to enhance the creativity of children through engagement with books.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Buchanan is the author of My Year with Harry Potter.

Carol J. Adams is the author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory and The Inner Art of Vegetarianism: Spiritual Practices for Body and Soul.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Lantern Books (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930051514
• ISBN-13: 978-1930051515
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For kids, by a kid -- this is a great activity book, August 24, 2003

By 

Diane C. Howard (Bellevue, Nebraska, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journey to Gameland: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children's Book (Paperback)

Written by a kid (with adult help) and illustrated by the kid's brother, JTG is a remarkable way to encourage creativity and get kids to do something besides watch TV or play on the computer.
This isn't an adult book, so some of the advice (how to make money, pawns, etc) might make grown-ups cringe and cry out that it is too crude or unfinished. So what? We're talking make-believe.
Buchanan goes step by step, offering advice and warning where difficulties might come in. His technique is simple and obvious, and any child can modify his advice to suit (soccer, favorite movie, family things). He even includes a super book list!
I bought this book at a local bookstore and even though I have no kids and have nobody to play board games with I think this is easily a five-star book. You can even use it as a birthday party event (directions included).
This is a marvelous edition to a family, school or church library. You won't be sorry.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Board Games Editor at BellaOnline.com, January 31, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Journey to Gameland: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children's Book (Paperback)

This book teaches your child how to make a board game based on their favorite book, and it's interactive, like a workbook.

The premise of the book is fun. Instead of being a standard workbook, it's written in a style that mimics an actual journey, with "Postcards" that your child will fill in and "Guideposts", which are for the parent or teacher to read.

While a child reading and discovering this book will probably be gently tricked into thinking that they're doing nothing but having fun, as a parent or teacher, you'll realize how much they're getting out of the activity! They're thinking critically about their chosen book, finding ways to adapt it into a game using math and logic, and being artistic! What more can you ask?

This book is a great resource for kids who can't get enough of their favorite book, for parents who are trying to teach their child how to think critically about literature, and for teachers to help provide inspiration.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource, A Unique Book, December 2, 2009

By 

LauraJ (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Journey to Gameland: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children's Book (Paperback)

This book is fabulous! I am a homeschooling parent and I am planning on teaching a homeschool class on board game design at our co-op. I was looking for a resource book to help me help the kids. This book is perfect. It not only helped me get a clearly defined plan for guiding them through the process, it encouraged me to have them use their favorite book as an inspiration. This book was the perfect jumping off point for our class. I also bought My Year with Harry Potter and can't wait to read that one. We are huge Harry fans in our house. Ben Buchanan, thumbs up!! My Ben loves this idea. We are making our own game as soon as possible. Thank you for the inspiration!