Board Games Books

We have actually never "read" this book, we only "sing" it. The kids all love it and ask for it to be read as often as they find it (we have a few other books). The illustrations are fun and very friendly drawings of a little bear cub climbing on his dad. I suppose that's the other draw...kids love to climb on their dads. :-)

Prater's illustrations are wonderful, and the text is simple and repetitive... just perfect for toddlers and 2 year olds.

The text and pictures of this book, much like _Walking Around the Garden_ (also by Prater), makes my son want to GET UP AND DO all the things he sees in the pictures.

This series of board books by John Prater has to be one of the BEST series of books of any type for 2 year olds. My son is 25 months old now, and he knows these books inside and out.

If you let your child imitate the actions in picture books, get ready. The climbing and tumbling and reaching are all coming, as soon as your little one gets ahold of a copy of _The Bear Went Over the Mountain_.

ken32

John Prater's illustrations are wonderful! (Similar to Barbara Firth's illustrations in the Little Bear books). My 21 month old daughter requests to hear the book over and over.

I was delighted to read Beginning Go by Peter Shotwell and Susan Long. As a teacher of Go at a middle school, I work with students who are just getting interested in the game. It was thrilling to read a book truly geared toward the "beginner" student. Many resource books are very good but are too far advanced and intimidating for an out right beginning student of Go. Shotwell and Long have done what others have attempted to do, by giving a concise introduction to and an understandable, uncomplicated explanation of the basic concepts of the game. Each chapter has several simple exercises that allow the student to master the basics before moving onto the next concept. Beginning Go has now become our recommended book for beginning students in the club. After reading this book, students are no longer intimidated or frustrated with learning a beautiful game that they will come to enjoy for a lifetime.
Thank you for writing such a wonderful book.
Jeff Long (no relation!)
Asheville, North Carolina

Thanks to the authors--they have finally unlocked the mysteries of go for me who is interested in Asian culture and tried other books and the Internet. They use the Stone Counting Method which is much clearer than the traditional methods for keeping score and deciding who won, and also answers all those questions that are involved (meaning what groups are alive and dead and why). Also, the book provided a great way for me to go from smaller boards to bigger ones by using the latest Korean advances put into a comprehensible fashion. This is the book if you want to learn how to play!

This book did everything that it set out to do, especially concerning the main reason that I and two friends gave up the game years ago--how to tell when it's over! It also doesn't waste a lot of space with problems that can easily be found at goproblems.com and other places. Instead it organized my thinking about them. And it also got us playing on bigger boards very quickly. I think it would be really good for teaching children, too. Thanks, Mr. Shotwell! We're really enjoying the game now!

My 2 grandsons, ages 1 & 3, are crazy about construction vehicles & this little book seems to have captured the hearts of both boys. It's the perfect size for them to carry into the car & that's where it lives now. I must confess that when I first saw the book I thought it was kind of boring, but the pictures are terrific and who am I to argue with the taste of a 1 year old? I highly recommend this book and the others in the Things that Go series.

My son loves trucks these days and got these truck board books for his 2nd birthday a few weeks ago and he loves them. He did manage to separate the book because it's a board book and he likes to snap the pages around but even in pieces he still loves to read it, look at it and have it read to him. The only reason I don't give this 5 stars is because there aren't many pages to them, but this doesn't matter to kids who like the same few pages read over and over anyway.

My just 2 year old loves bulldozers and backhoes and this book is everything he loves!! It is a nice size and easy for him to carry everywhere!

This is a fun interactive book for my toddler. He loves to fill in the blanks w/ his cheerios, and it helps to keep him busy/distracted for a long time!

The Cheerios play books are favorites of mine, as gifts for toddlers. Their purpose, as my daughter pointed out, is to encourage children to eat more Cheerios, which they do! However, they also have fun and do a little learning along the way. How often is a child allowed to play with food, after all? There are simple illustrations on durable pages, with opportunities for matching, counting, and learning shapes. Small motor dexterity can be practiced, to place the Cheerios into the shallow recesses of the pages to create buttons on costumes, glasses on a cat, etc. This book is a good take-along size to fit into a tote bag (with some Cheerios, of course) for entertainment. Friends I've given this to say that their children really enjoy it!

I can't believe my first Amazon review is about a kids' book that touts a product! For the most part, I try to keep my kid away from all-too rampant marketing.

Anyway, the grandparents gave my now 20-month-old daughter this little book for Halloween and since then we've had it out a few times when she eats Cheerios (or the generic variety of same). Today as I was getting ready for work, my little one was sitting on the counter, noticed the Cheerios box and wanted some. I poured a few on the counter, after which she immediately said "down" and "book". I figured she was just being her fickle toddler self, so I let her down off the counter. She went running off to her room and emerged a few minutes, and thud noises, later with this book! I was pretty impressed that she made the association and riffled through all her other books to retrieve this one.

She does stick the Os in the little holes, but not perfectly. She seems to like the book okay, it is not a favorite, but obviously she has a fun little contextual association between it and O-shaped cereal!

This book describes a lot of connection games.
Every game is studied using the primitive map of shannon game.

There is a deep description of principal games, like hex, shannon game, Y, trax etc. and a brief descrpition of a lot of other games, all based on the objective of connecting different sides of the board. Some games are invented by the author.

A pleasing book, even if some game has a too short description.

Connection games are a genre of board games that generally consist of connecting adjacent squares (or hexagons, octagons, circles) together in some manner so as to meet some definition like a line across the board or enclosing an area.

The book is organized into three main parts and a set of appendicies.

Part I covers introductory material including a genral definition of connection, and a breakdown of games into several different groups.

Part II provides a catalogue of a surprisingly large number of currently known connection games.

Part III summarizes the books conclusions and gives some speculative aspects of connection games using the definition of a new game to illustrate critical points.

The appendicies give a further understanding of selected games through a slightly more theoretical approach.

This book defines a connection game and proceeds to analyze them. About half the book is a catalog of all the connection games that have been invented, most in the past 20 years. I had no idea there were so many. This book will give you a taste of all these games and how they are "connected". It also presents ways of analyzing connection games, and has some tips on playing. Still, this is not a book that will tell you how to win at Hex, I think the author has another book for this.

My big gripe was that all of the page numbers in this book in the Table of Contents and the Indexes (there are several) are off by 13. My book came with a short note on a separate piece of paper noting this error. I found it frustrating looking things up in the indexes, although you soon become pretty good at converting. For a fairly expensive book, this is rather sloppy publishing, and should have been caught.

The three books series is a must for anyone wanting to play Go at a resonable level. Though, I would suggest reading tome n. 3 as your first book as it covers Josekis starting from the 4-4 star point that are the most played ones (and, anyway, enforceable in three corners out of four).

Joseki are sequences of play, normally in the corners of the Go board, but sometimes on the sides. Basically, a joseki is intended to be of equal benefit to both players. Sometimes the players split the territory, sometimes one gets territory and one gets influence. They are not really 'fixed' patterns, although beginners are encouraged to memorize several. Instead, there are countless variations. The art of choosing which Joseki to play in what corner is a crucial part of the early stage of the game, with the fuseki or whole board opening giving way to the Joseki and finally to the tactical warfare of the middle and end games.

There are some 20,000 of these patterns that have identified and evaluated, although far fewer are in common usage. Still, the number one needs to be at least familiar with can seem daunting. Hence, the importance of something like the 'Dictionary of Basic Joseki.' Ishida Yoshio patiently works through some 209 joseki (80 in this first volume) in enough depth to give the reader some sense of confidence as he or she approaches them in a real game. Do not expect real deep dives however, simply enough information to make sensible choices and get a good game under way.

Yoshio Ishida focuses on popular joseki for the 3-4, 5-3, 5-4, 4-4 (star point), and 3-3 point. Volume one is all about the 3-4 point, which is a very good reason to make sure to track down the other two volumes. I'm a fan of star point openings in even games, and they are also vital in handicap games, so volume three is possibly more important than volume one. Other writers, such as Sakata Eio, have made studies of particular joseki, but nothing approaches the general coverage of this set in the English language.

I have to admit I have the least patience for learning joseki. I find the fuseki phase fascinating, but joseki study is frustrating because the stronger player will often deviate from the pattern to introduce some confusion. Thus, the key to study is not learning the pattern, but learning what to do when one's opponent does something he should not. This set of books manages to give me that information without trying my patience too greatly. They have been reprinted recently in 2001 and should still be readily available from the publisher (Kiseido) if Amazon cannot provide them.

This is a great book for those who are somewhat strong at Go and want to get stronger. It is NOT for beginners. After you have gotten to the 5 kyu and stronger range this is wonderful study material.

If you like ladybugs and monkeys this one is also good. Not quite as good, but a great option when you're ready to read something else.

My son is only 16 months old, so he likes to have things read to him over and over again. He really enjoyed this book because it had music to go along with the story.

I saw this book, and it reminded me of my mother singing the same little 'Eency Weency Spider' or 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' song, and having fun getting tickled with the spider crawling up my leg. I thought it would make quite a nice gift birthday gift for my 2 year old niece along with the Little Tyke xylophone.

Her mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa can read, sing, and share the story of a slow spider that keeps getting left behind when the other spiders go up a waterspout through a variety of engaging activites like by dancing like a ballerina or flying by airplane, etc. The eency weency spider keeps trying her best all the way through to a surprise ending.

In addition to the kid-friendly illustrations, there are cute little 3D spiders glued onto the pages that can be seen through a series of holes drilled into the book. Each time the page is turned the number of spiders decreases until there is only one left, which should be useful in teaching counting skills.

It is neat to me still at the age of 31, reminding me of the endearing Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle. There is also a little button which plays the 'Eency Weency Spider' tune, so you can easily learn the melody to sing to your little one. At some point the battery will give out and your memory will have to suffice, though. (it will!)

This one is a classic, whether your child is a future entymologist, squirms at the sight of anything with 6 or 8 legs, or is somewhere in between.

Great size and sturdy enough to take anywhere...present original items to count.

This Elmo Shaped Sturdy Board Book is great for toddlers. Elmo walks them through numbers 1-10 and they learn to count fun and colorful items like balloons, birthday cakes, and bunny rabbits. Book is nicely sized, holds up well to heavy page turning tots!

Elmo fans will enjoy this way to learn about numbers...Elmo helps readers count objects such as birthday cakes, butterflies and even ice cream trucks.

Elmo offers encouragement throughout the book, offering praise for counting correctly. At the end of the book, toddlers reach the "surprise" that Elmo refers to throughout the book -- the chance to "meet" all the numbers.

I don't have read all the book, but I read most of the scientific papers it is composed by. I think they are very interesting and puzzling, on the border line between serious mathematics (game theory and all this stuff) and "recreational math" (like the angel problem). It would be a good read also for people interested in computer games.

See Ed Sandifer's MAA Online review at: http://www.maa.org/reviews/nochance.htm

This book is full of beatiful work. Every section is an investigation into some combinatorial game, or some idea in combinatorial game theory. Most of the material is clearly presented and all should be accessible to undergrads, but be warned: this is not simple stuff. But, as we all know, beautiful mathematics isn't always simple. The book also includes a section with 52 unsolved problems, which should be of considerable interest to the curious.

Board games as we understand them in the 21st century, really began in the early nineteenth. Before then, children were really considered to be junior adults: time not spent in school was for work on the farm, or in a factory. Of course there was chess, checkers (draughts) or games like Go, and Senet. But these were primarily played by adults. With growing prosperity, and corresponding disposable income and spare time, came a realization of the value of play for children. This play could be used for socialization: instill values, increase literacy, and develop dexterity, without the kids knowing it. Since board games had this mission, as well as entertainment they make a unique window into the social history of the Victorian Era.

"The Games We Played" does an excellent job of showing the changes wrought in American society reflected in board games. The rise of urbanization, development of a transportation infrastructure, and the nascent consumerism all are described via the illustrations. This is not an in depth social history, but association of major nineteenth century events, and how they affected games is pointed out. The illustrations alone are almost worth the price of the book, as they are practically works of art (in an era before lithographs, game art was hand painted by factory workers). The only weak areas of the book are the two chapters about travel; neither is more than a few pages, and the narrative is not of the level of the others in this work. Overall, if one has any interest in games, or social history this is worth considering.

Board game have long been a family passtime, and this history of the board game will intrigue any who enjoy games. Bright full-page color photos of vintage board and table games accompany descriptions of their themes and history. Games are organized around themes - chapters survey a surprising one hundred of popular American games, drawn from over five hundred given to the New York Historical Society by Arthur and Ellen Liman, flea market devotees who amassed a large collection. Highly recommended for collectors and game enthusiasts alike: The Games We Played is a perfect gift pick for the Christmas season!

Board games seem to have a monopoly on our entertaining
pastimes: Their sales have doubled in the last year alone! And if
your idea of a great game is Chutes & Ladders or Risk, they go to
jail and do not pass go. Margaret K. Hofer's nifty volume brings
together more than 100 eye-popping examples of rare and popular
board games, organized by theme, such as sports, courtship and
travel. The late 19th century and early 20th century games here are drawn from more than 500 such gems from The New York
Historical Society's tremendous collection. What's most fascinating (besides the glorious color photos) is being reminded
that as much as times change, some things (like games) don't. Take "The Elite Conversation Cards," manufactured in 1887. Think of it as a vintage "20 Questions" or a host of other games that can be found at Toys R Us .... courting couples "break the ice" with cards that ask such deep, thought-provoking questions
such as "Are you inclined to boss the house?" and "Have you ever
been in love?" Pass the dice, please.