Fun and Games Books

I would reccomend this product to anyone looking for a fun book about Minnesota History. It is great to use as a game with friends, or simply to generate conversation.

I enjoy Minnesota Trivia and am glad I bought it. It's not one of those parody books that poke fun at Minnesotans, but rather a bushel basket full of facts about Minnesota life. The six chapters are Geography, Entertainment, History, Arts and Literature, Sports and Leisure, and Science and Nature. My kids and their kids take it off the shelf to see if I can answer the questions (1,296 of them) about Kettle Falls, Prince, Red River ox carts, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Bronko Nagurski, or Sister Elizabeth Kenny. I'm glad it's on my shelf for snowy days. As a matter of fact, I have two, one for my own notes and one for the kids to use to ask the questions.

There are 32 pages of great photos of everything from ducks to sheep to farming machines in this very nice book for young children. The font on every page is large and the text will keep young readers interested. There are two to four sentences for each animal and once in a while a question is thrown in for fun, e.g., "How many eggs can you see?" The photos are very detailed and kids should have a good time with the pictures whether they can read themselves or are being read to.

My one year old daughter has loved this book since she was a young baby. She loves looking at the realistic pictures of animals while I make the appropriate animal noises. It's durable, bright colored, and still a favorite.

Buy this! I am a person who loves parties so i absolutely loved this book, but i think anyone would like this book...it has so many ideas and it even has things that you would ask yourself but didn't even think would be in there like, what to wear, and what food to eat, and if someone stays a really long time and you can't get them to leave!! i loved it, a must have!

This American Girl book is very good. Get this book if you want you're next birthday party to be at your house. This book will tells you who to invite, what games to play, what to eat, how to plan your party, how to be a great hostess, what to dance to, and lots more. A must-have for American Girl book lovers.
*****

As a homeschooling mom with a 1st grader, I'm always on the lookout for engaging, multi-faceted curricula. This science book is one I'm very pleased to be using since it provides not only science instruction but vocabulary and reading comprehension as well. Well worth the cost!

This book contains a variety of readings and exercises relating to important concepts in the human body, physical, earth, and life sciences. Key words are presented in boldface, and the activities and exercises that follow strengthen vocabulary and concepts presented in the reading.

This book would be hard to beat for several reasons. It is a fairly large book 10X11 inches and 320 pages.I have a fairly large collection of puzzle books but I have not seen one so well designed and manufactured as this one. The paper,printing,color,layout,organization and variety of puzzles simply could not be better. Not only that,but my copy is a hard cover with metal coil binding. The coil is inside the hard covers,a design one does not often see. This design allows the book to be opened and lies completely flat.The pages are all separate and not glued as you normally get.This makes it a far superior product to a glued soft cover book or even one with an outside plastic coil ,which usually does not stand up to much use. In fact many are damaged while still in the store. If that's not enough they even included a plastic pocket at the back with 3 clear and one white,full sized, acetate sheets along with a Dry/Erase pen.
This allows one to work the puzzles over again yourself or by others. There is even permission given to reproduce the pages if you wish. My copy actually was missing the pen, but I took their suggestion and found others at 3/$1 at a "Dollar Store " that worked perfectly. This is a great idea which I'll use in the future in other puzzle books. It is just a shame that the edition I recently saw was just a soft,glued cover,and lacking these great features.I can't recommend strongly to try to get the version I've described.
As to the puzzles themselves,there is a very wide selection,of just about every type and range of difficulty that you will ever see in a book like this.
This book would be a wonderful asset to have in the home,cottage, school,or any place where activities are going on.
The puzzles are all such that they can be done alone ,in teams or copies made and distributed to a group.
This book will give you a great overview of the many types of puzzles that exist and there will be many enjoyable hours obtained from it. There is a great deal to be learned from working these puzzles; and you will soon see that learning can be a lot of entertainment. Answers are given for all the puzzles and in many cases explanations of how to go about solving them are given.
You'll see among my reviews,several on puzzle books,and some excellent ones at that,but this one has to be one of the best.
OMNIHEURISTS (puzzle solvers) will love this book.

This is a great book!! The variety in this book is excellent: logic, number, words, trivia, mazes, creative thinking... there are so many different types of puzzles here its impossible to put down. Every page is in color and excitingly designed and the pages are still very easy to write on in pencil or pen.

I'm very particular about the variety in my puzzle books, but this gets an A!! WELL WORTH IT!

***ONE THING THOUGH: I have the paperback version, not the hardcover. And the webpage says "includes a felt-tip pen and four wipe-clean acetate sheets to allow each puzzle to be done again and again" but mine didn't include that. But I didn't order it off of amazon; I picked it up at Border's.

I have been getting these calendars for years now. I love the Simpsons. Each day on the calendar has celebrity birthdays, both living and dead. Some are pretty funny (for example Oct. 2 is both Ghandi and Groucho Marx)and some are interesting to know how old some of them are. I also like the various holidays from all over the world included. All in all it is a "fun calendar."

The Smpsons calendar does it again! Just as the series is ongoing in laughter on T.V. so is it in the Simpsons calendar. This years calendar starts in Janurary with the clip from "Homer the Vigilante" (1F09) where homer is riding a missile. In February we are treated to the love story from the episode "Life on the Fast Lane" (7G11) where Marge in carried out by Homer from the power plant as they are in love. In March Bart thinks Ned Flanders killed his wife as he looks thru his teliscope in the episode "Bart of Darkness" (1F22). In April the family moves away after seeing Slideshow Bob in "Cape Feare" (9F22). In May Homer is going to the shuttle to be blasted into space in "Deep Space Homer" (1F13). In June Homer decides to dance in his underwear rather than go to church in "Homer the Heretic" (9F01). The calender then goes to a classic insert showing the poster from very first Itchy & Scratchy cartoon. The rest of the year is more hilarious as scenes from the Simpsons past keep you laughing from Janurary to December.

I was hosting two parties in one week: one for a group of my children's friends (teens and pre-teens) and another for a group of my own friends (Gen X'ers and Baby Boomers). There were so many varied games in this book that both groups had a great time. Instructions are easy to follow and the games are all instantly addictive. If you're looking for something beyond the typical board games you'll find at most parties, this is perfect for you. Most games require only players and their brains, a few others require pen and pencil. No matter what, everything we played from this book was a lot of fun. Highly recommended!

John, Thank you for writing this complete book of party games. I look forward to trying a few of them. Everyone who is throwing a party for New Year's this year should definitely buy your book to make their party even more memorable (Not that any party wouldn't benefit - especially a work related party). You are a very talented writer. I look forward to your next work. Good Luck! Deana

Beautiful, attractive pictures, with bright colors. The activities are complete. My son loves them!

As a kindergarten teacher, this book is a lifesaver! The learning centers are complete, just laminate and cut out. They are ready to use. I love how they are presented in paper bags. My students LOVE these activities and do them repeatedly! I highly recommend this book for anyone who uses learning centers!

These activities are wonderful for 1st graders to do independently or with a friend/family member. I highly recommend this book!

This book is awesome. I teach adult ESL, and I'm always looking for supplemental material to use in my class. I used these centers on Monday, and the students loved them. The centers look so nice when laminated and having them each in their own packet is great. Nearly all of the centers were challenging for the students, but lots of fun. They didn't want to quit when class was over! I'm sure elementary students would love them too. This product is great. I highly recommend it.

This book helps teachers find lessons already laid out for instruction to focus on specific comprehension strategies their students may need. Good examples and additional resources are included.

I own many books on the subjects of teaching elementary reading and writing. What I like about this book is that it does not waste time on well known theories, but instead presents practical lesson planning for guiding young readers. The lessons are easily modified for grades 2-5 and the order of the lessons presented makes perfect sense - including separate and distinct approaches to teaching reading of fiction and non-fictin texts.