Playing With Stuff: Outrageous Games With Ordinary Objects [Paperback]

Ferry Piekart (Author), Lars Deltrap (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2004

From Water Waddle to Bash Ball, Topsy Tumble to Story Boardy, these off-the-wall, totally outrageous games will keep you busy for months! First things first though. You have to collect the items you'll need to play them. Root through the trash! Raid the kitchen cabinets! Collect all the toilet paper you can find! It's time to get started!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–The premise of this slim volume is that game playing should be inventive. The author often derides "boring" and "ordinary" pastimes and makes wry comments about parents. All 34 games are played with or made from items generally found around the house like bottle caps, pieces of cheese, old calendars, soda cans, sliced-up plastic pop containers, straws, furniture, and old toys. Some of the ideas are quite creative; others have potential for creating problems. For example, "Story Boardy" requires that toilet paper be unrolled throughout the entire house. Players are to draw lines and write instructions with magic markers on the squares. Hopefully, this "board" is not created on pale-colored carpets. Quirky drawings accompany the activities. Unfortunately, the small-size type is difficult to read, especially when printed on a colored background.–Kathryn Kosiorek, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. Originally published in the Netherlands, this sturdy, large-format paperback describe games that children can play with everyday materials such as plastic cups, bottle caps, furniture, and umbrellas. While not every activity lives up to the descriptor "outrageous," kids will find plenty of zany, original ideas here. Story Boardy uses people as playing pieces in a board game on a monumental scale. After rolling their dice, the players move along a "board" made by unwinding a roll of toilet paper through every room in the house and writing instructions for the people who land on certain squares. Frozen Towers involves building with ice cubes, which grow increasingly slick and uncooperative as the game progresses. Given the quirky humor of the presentation, just reading about the games can be fun. Colorful, droll artwork adds to the book's offbeat charm. A rousing, original presentation for those who want to play outside the box. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Pub (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 192913262X
• ISBN-13: 978-1929132621
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,345,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars incredibly funny!!, March 17, 2004

By 

Brian de Bont (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing With Stuff: Outrageous Games With Ordinary Objects (Paperback)

now THIS is a funny activitybook for kids! it looks unusual for a gaming book, and unusual it is! These games are so wacky, I laughed my socks of! My sons are playing 'Furniture Fuddle' all day, and they have great fun with it. Very innovative games. Even a game with a slice of cheese and a straw! You wonder how they came up with all this stuff. This gamebook beats all others. To be honest, I had a lot of fun with it myself, just reading it. The drawings look a bit strange, but well, let's say that fits with the book! don't hesitate to buy this one.

5.0 out of 5 stars must have!!!, July 10, 2005

By 

Angela Storm (Florida, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing With Stuff: Outrageous Games With Ordinary Objects (Paperback)

simply the most original activity book i came across.
other books about games children can play, are all the same.
this one is really something else, and it is very challenging and appealing to kids.
very funny also, just to read.
if you have kids, this book should be on your bookshelf to kill the dull moments!
your kids will never be bored again... well at least for quite some time!
i hope they will make a series of books out of this.