Game Studies Books

Immodestly, I announce that Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, Ill is scehduled to publish a second edition of Narcs' Game, in fall, 2001. I am presently working on the revision.

Peter K. Manning Manningp@msu.edu

There are great recipes in this book, with lots of tips on what oils and herbs and other ingredients to use. And reasons why some ingredients are better than others for certain recipes. Pictures of ingredients are helpful so you know what you're looking for. Some good gift ideas also.

This book is a summary of folklore in relation to children. Some knowledge of Spanish is very helpful as you'd need to know how to pronounce the words to play the games. Some of these games seem rather old-fashioned and I don't think many modern children would like them. Consider those a history and folklore lesson. There is some background given on some of the traditions. This book seems to be extracted or have used the same research as Mexican American Folklore published by August House. This is not a book with quick and easy directions as it is more of a reading book. If you want to teach your children songs and games in Spanish, I'd choose another one. If you're a Spanish student or a native speaker who wants to know about the Latin culture, then this might be a good choice.

My 4 year old loved the book. The number of dots to connect ranges from 1 to around 40, so he could do them by himself. Great for a rainy day.

This was such an excellent effort to uncover the astronomy underlying game boards of all kinds. It read well, informal, newsy and thoroughly articulate. It was a find! I haven't read anything that was this good in such a specific subject area. You will enjoy it if you can find it and it's worth the search.

Twenty party themes include directions and templates for invitations, goodie bags, four games or activities for each party, a fantastic cake, and totally coordinated decorations. For those of us whose kids had parties at the local park or pool, this is a really overwhelming book. But if you're an event planner, or if you have the time and energy and inspiration to do a party like this for your kids, I'm sure it will be remembered forever and ever. Themes include a terrific pirate party, wrestlemania party, skateboarding, mermaid, boys in the woods, teddybear picnic, and a fantastic Halloween party. Like the Family Fun 100 Parties book (now out of print) this has loads of helpful full color photos and specific instructions for those of us who were born without the arts-and-crafts gene.

This calendar is really funny and is based on the "Perfect Man" series of posters. It features a human anatomy model ("If he's lying, you can see right through him"), a gingerbread man ("He's smart. He's Sweet. And if he gives you any crap, you can bite his head off"), etc. This is a great gift for any woman with a sense of humor (+ man problems, for that matter).

Thank goodness I found this book! I used it when I started medical school. Now I'm going to give it to my son who is a freshman high school student and is struggling. I wish this book was not out of print!

This is a bilingual book about the old game of loteria, which is similar to bingo and played widely in Mexican culture. The story is about a young boy who is (rather abruptly in the opening sentence) shipped off to stay with his Spanish speaking grandmother. He does not speak very much Spanish, how will they communicate? Ahhh, the magic of the cards, loteria! The story is told in the first person so we never learn the little boy's name. Abuelita(grandmother)meets him at the bus station and his foreign language adventure begins. They immediately go to a fair, listen to mariachi music and in general take in the smells,sights and sounds of the colorful festivites , which are detailed quite nicely. Abuelita owns a loteria stand and the little boy is explained the rules as the crowd gathers around to play. The children play the game and the little boy learns about loteria and his grandma. Later, once at home, through the cards, they both begin to learn each others language(English and Spanish) through the cards images and charades. The boy learns enough to eventually call the card game at abuelita's loteria stand. He eventually has to go home to return to school but not before the little boy has learned to speak Spanish better. The book is nicely illustrated throughout with full page colorful, dynamic drawings. There are also pictures drawn of the loteria cards and a section that explains the simple rules of the game. This book is a great teaching tool. It may be used in a variety of ways for a classroom of bilingual students. Recommended for K-8 school and community libraries.

Most Holocaust-related material, especially the films, seem to always portray Poles in a unilaterally negative light. This volume, by contrast, is well worth the reader's time. It gives various perspectives on Jewish-Polish relations during and immediately after WWII. But I take issue with some claims. In one article, Antony Polonsky cites a document from the mainstream Polish underground (AK) wherein the AK would come out in open combat if the Germans tried the same thing to Polish gentiles that they did to the Jews. From this, Polonsky infers that the leadership of the Polish underground saw Polish deaths as worth averting, but not Jewish deaths. But this is a complete non-sequitur on Polonsky's part. Remember that, along with 3 million Polish Jews, 2-3 million Polish gentiles were also being murdered by the Germans, yet the AK did not start a national uprising on behalf of the 2-3 million gentiles any more than it did on behalf of the 3 million Polish Jews. What the AK leadership was actually saying was that a national uprising would not be in the offing unless a large fraction of the Polish population was in danger of being exterminated in a full-blown genocide, at which time there would be nothing to lose, for Polish people as a whole, to come out in open warfare against the German occupation authorities. The Jews, of course, had nothing to lose already in 1942, but the Polish gentiles, as a whole, still did. That is the actual reason for the AK witholding more overt military action on behalf of the Jews. Nevertheless, the AK did aid Jews in various ways, including supplying the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with 50 firearms. This may not seem like much, but remember that every gun was worth its weight in gold. In fact, if was worth human lives, as each donated firearm had been procured at risk of a Polish gentile's life, and kept at risk of a Polish gentile's life. And, of course, each gun donated to the Jews meant one less gun available to Polish gentiles to conduct guerrilla actions against the Germans, and to protect Polish gentiles in the event of a full-blown German genocide against the entire Polish population.