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

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

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 'Thank goodness Floris Books has published these two classic books, where the Opies' have recorded the traditional games that children across the UK played while out of the sight of adults. Most parents will relate to descriptions of the games they themselves played. This new edition promotes an active and natural approach to family life and child development.' -- Kindling, Spring/Summer 2009 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
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".

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 4, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192814893
• ISBN-13: 978-0192814890
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,900,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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 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.