Fun and Games Books

I couldn't put it down, I finished the book in two weeks. But trust me, it gets a bit difficult near the end. Worth it!!!

It's an insane craze, or a mindless waste of time - everyone seems to love it or hate it.

This is an enjoyable set of 150 puzzles of graded difficulty, ranging up to two oversized 12x12 offerings. A brief introduction traces the puzzle's murky history, and another offers the basics of solution strategy. It's just the basics, though. You'll need a lot more than that intro to get through even the "Light and Easy" section of the book (the first half) - the barest beginners might dispute that "easy" claim.

So enjoy it, if it's the kind of thing you enjoy. It's fun, challenging, a test of wits, and won't get the neighbors talking about you.

//wiredweird

I didn't find this book particularly good for a beginner. I would recommend starting with a New York Post version to get familiar with Sudoku and try this book later. I'm still in the NYP book and am enjoying it a lot. The NYP ones are written by Wayne Gould.

150 puzzles for five bucks... not a bad deal. These puzzles are light and easy, great for coffee-breaks or subway rides. They're printed small, which can be problematic for more difficult puzzles (it's hard to write in "possibles" and difficult to erase without accidentally erasing other numbers), but since the puzzles are relatively easy, you won't be needing to write in "possibles" anyway.

All-in-all, this is a nice little book which will fit in most purses or briefcases and make for a great diversion when you have nothing else to do.

Maybe it was just the edition I purchased, but yuck. Not visually compelling me and my son to sit down and take all the tests.

We live our whole childhood trying to figure out who we really are, and now there is a book to help our kids explore their personalities even deeper. It contains 40 fun and easy-to-follow psychological tests that offer a wide range of insights into a child's personality. At the end of the book, there is a summary sheet to tie together all the results in a nice and easy to understand manner. This is a great book for parents to share with their grade-school kids, and the best thing about these tests is that there are NO WRONG ANSWERS!!

This book is an excellent resource for your classroom. A learning tool for your children to discover who they really are!

This book does have a lot of self-discovery experiments- in fact that's pretty much all it has. There isn't much information included to validate the experiments or to explain why they are significant to psychology. However, the book does refer you to other sources. I ordered the book, hoping to use it with my High School Gifted class but found that the text was a bit too juvenille. This book could be a good supplement to a psychology unit, but it is not something from which to teach.

I've played through this game four times now and still thoroughly enjoy it. I think it appeals more to a certain personality type rather than whether or not someone is a "gamer." If you like gaming in general, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy this game. The game is fairly complex, extremely complex compared to run-of-the-mill board games, and the rules take some effort to get through. Expect to spend an hour or two playing a sample game the first time while reading through the rules. The pace can be rather slow yet it is interspersed with short bouts of action. The core motivation for playing is very similar to Computer Role Playing Games (CRPGs) in that it's all about building your character; making her more powerful and buying better gear with your hard-earned gold.

Other reviewers have already done a fine job of describing the details of gameplay so I'll just offer some suggestions and observations:

* This game is quite fun to play solo. I highly recommend playing through by yourself the first time or two so that you fully understand the rules before playing with someone else. This will make things move much faster the first time through with them.

* Two players will take about 4-5 hours to finish the game. Three will add about another hour. Don't even think about four or more.

* I'm thoroughly impressed with the quality of the board, cards and tokens. Very high quality. The character pieces, however, are durable enough but completely uncolored...they just a flat, boring gray.

* There's a rule about replacing the encounter markers when a certain card is drawn but this doesn't happen nearly enough. The rule is also fairly vague about what to do if you can't actually "play" that card. You'll know what I'm talking about if you play the game. I highly suggest replacing all markers if this card is drawn no matter if anyone "plays" it or not. This is the only weak/unclear rule I've found in the game (2nd Edition).

I bought this game with a lot of anticipation -- board game, card expansions, heroes running around on quests.

I am a big fan of Talisman. I always loved playing it. Something about the endless adventures required to win.

But there's something really missing in Runebound that I used to find in Talisman. I'm not exactly sure what it is, or how to fix this game ... but it's FUN.

The game simply isn't fun. Or at least, not right out of the box.

I played with a friend (and I made the mistake of letting him read the rules first and just starting) and we realized a good ways thru that we had missed some details.
However, I'd say partially this was b/c we hadn't looked too deeply, and part was b/c the rules are not easy to absorb as they are currently written. TOO RULESY!

Lots of potential here for a really great game ... but I haven't found more yet than potential...

PEACE

Ari

'Runebound' is recent entry in the board-based fantasy adventure game market. Board-based, in this context, means players are limited to moving on a board and having adventures based on cards that are drawn after moving. (Those of you old enough to remember Games Workshop's 'Talisman' should be familiar with the concept.)

Play is relatively simple, although the first game or so will go slowly as players adjust to the system. Each player selects a hero, gets some gold, then sets to adventuring. Terrain dice are rolled to determine how players may move during their turn. Players finishing their move on a city may heal wounds, sell treasure, and buy equipment or hire allies. Players who finish their move on an encounter space may trigger a game-altering event or be given a quest, but will always have to fight a monster. Combat is fairly simple; roll the supplied dice, add the character's combat value, and see if the total beats the monster's. Defeat enough monsters and your hero collects gold and experience, which in turn enables him or her to improve his combat power. There are four levels of encounters to be fought; the player who defeats the final boss monster (or three sub-bosses) in the toughest level wins the game.

The rules are well-written and have clear examples of what players may and may not do during their turn, but care needs to be taken while reading them. I recommend players play through a few turns slowly with the rules in hand as they figure out the game.

'Runebound' also has quality components. The many cards are printed on heavy stock, the counters are made of thick cardboard, and the dice are heavy and solid. The map seems durable for the light use it should see. There are also 12 plastic miniature heroes; sadly, these aren't painted, but they do match their pictures on the hero cards.

The real beauty of the 'Runebound' system is its replayability. After playing the enclosed game a few times players may look for a new challenge. The publisher has already released expansion card sets and map sets that expand on the original adventure, and imaginative players could easily design their own adventures.

'Runebound' is a good family game; players as young as 8 could probably play the game without much difficulty. I recommend it for anyone looking for something light but fun to fill a Saturday evening.

With RUNEBOUND, you conquer little challenges when you are starting out, slowly adding skills, weapons and experience to your character. Eventually, your character is strong enough to try the tougher challenges...but will he/she have what it takes to defeat the DRAGON LORDS? MUUAAAHHHAHAHAHAHAHA! I love this game. It's a complete role playing campaign (minus the role playing, of course, ha) in a board game, and it's fun.

The really cool thing about RUNEBOUND is that it is infinitely expandable. Simply changing the decks of cards used in the game will completely change the challenges and victory conditions. Therefore, replay value is very high. The "little" expansions are nothing more than new decks of cards and they're very reasonably priced. There are some "Mega" expansions that totally change the game as well...you could be playing this game with your gaming group for years to come.

Speaking of your gaming group...what if you don't have one? Not to worry, you can play RUNEBOUND solo, and it's still a LOT of fun!

I have gotten more than my money's worth from this game...if you like games that require a little thought and can't be bought at WalMart, this is a keeper. The instructions are complete, and there's a whole forum of players at Fantasy Flight's website ready and waiting to answer your questions if you ever have any.

Yes, this book has short stories, but my inner-city middle graders are not interested in them. Students need stories that they can relate to. Maybe it is just me, but this has not proven to be helpful in my classroom, although it does add to the other bunch of books that I have on my shelf and it makes me look more well-read, I suppose. Please, don't waste your money!

i admit--i am a bit biased. i was introduced to this book before i began to work with bob and some of the other writers included in the collection. it is an asset to any classroom library. after i met bob, i began to treasure the book even more. what a fantastic teacher he is... what an excellent book...

I have started using this well thought out book in my high school creative writing class. My students, most of whom are reading below grade level, easily understand the stories. The author notes and editor notes help me prepare them for their writing challenge.

This is a valuable teaching tool in my classroom.

This book includes SO MANY beautiful stories to share with students and stimulate their writing! This is my third year of teaching and I don't know what I would have done without this book. I was fortunate to find it here @ Amazon the summer before I began as a new educator. It really helped me set up my writing program for my 6th, 7th and 8th grade language arts students.

Another installment of the same kind of relevent topics and well-written samples would not be a horrible thing to release into the universe.

The pages were discolored and there was an excessive amount of writing inside of it. This was not noted in the posting of the product placed on sale.

This book describes almost every major disability and gives the teacher ways to handle classroom strategies for each one.

This is an excellent, inexpensive overview of Special Education impairements/disorders. It concentrates heavily on the 5 forms of Autism. It breaks down the other impairments in a way a general education teacher can understand for IEP's. I think all teachers should have a copy of this. It helps out us Special Educators to keep you up to date.

If you're new to the special education world, this book would then be a good read for you. It's simple, opens each secion with a quick story to match the disabilities in the chapter, then goes into breaking down what you need to do for children with disability need from you and what you need to do (leagally) for them.
This isn't a tell all book, meaning, pick up more specialized special ed books as needed, but this book is a great start with very helpful, useful, and practical information.

Purely descriptive book written to get money from custommers. After I read it I still did not know how to play poker. A lot of unuseful information. For example, short chapter about holdem ends "If you want to learn how to play holdem buy my next book".

This was the first of four poker books that I've read (The Big Poker Book, Super Systems II; and Sklansky's books: The Theory of Poker, and Hold'Em Poker for Advanced Players). The Big Poker book was an excellent primer, and starts with the right message, "poker isn't about winning or losing but making the best possible decision with the information you have."

I like the writer's style, you get the sense that he is a real person not a professor or prima donna. The other books are much more technical, and easy to get bogged down in.

After watching the WSOP, I was itching to go all-in but the book gets you thinking about the fundamentals. A good read ...

This book is an excellent tool for those trying to understand the game, or for those that are looking for strategies to increase their winning odds. From the first complete history of the game, to explaining the play of the game and many different variations of each game, this book assists you step-by-step in learning and mastering the game of Poker. I've now actually started to win with my buddies each month!!!

like new conditions, excellent for info and activities for my christmas around the world theme

This book is great if doing a unit on Christmas Around the World with elementary students! My class enjoyed the countries I picked out

I use this book every year in my Christmas Around the World unit. Overall it's a great resource. I like the variety of countries represented and the inclusion of crafts and recipes is great.
I do wish that the information was more suited for giving straight to students. It's not very Santa friendly. The book never outright states that Santa isn't real. But an alert child could infer it pretty well from the passages in this book.
Overall the recipes are great but some of them are a bit vague. Since these are going to be unfamiliar dishes to most of the cooks attempting them the directions should be pretty explicit.
All in all, even with it's weaknesses, I'd recommend this book.

My wife bought this as a surprise for our romantic weekend away. Most of the games are not very exciting and they don't tell you ahead of time that you'll need a lot of props. So we couldn't even try half the games on our weekend. The other games are mostly roll playing and questions. This is great if your a young couple who are still getting to know each other in the early stages of a relationsship and what to have some fun. If you've been married for a few years there is not much here unless your totally sexually repressed.

There are 12 different games like truth or dare and sexy scavanger hunt where your partner is blindfolded and you put three different foods of your choice on different parts of your body and he has to find them only using his month. Very fun cards and highly recommended.

This is a great idea for a bridal shower, bachlorette gift, Valentine's day - it doesn't matter the occasion! Get it for yourself, your significant other (male or female) you'll be hard pressed to find someone who's returned it!

If you are looking for basic forms that are already in Spanish this is the book for you. If you are looking for vocabulary and phrases for oral communication with parents this is not a good choice at all.

We have only a few Spanish speaking students at our school, and this has been a GREAT help in communicating with their parents. It's an excellent resource to have on hand!

I teach Spanish and ESL/ELL. I often translate materials for teachers who do not speak spanish. I am always looking for good resources to help me with those not so common phrases, as well as, education specific vocabulary. I was intrigued by the title of this book and decided to give it a try despite the lack of content information provided on amazon.
I am actually pretty impressed and feel that if you know even just a little spanish this resource would be very helpful.
It specifies that it is for grades K-8 and I would agree. The book is divided into several categories,such as, beginning of the year, school schedule, grade reports, math skills, special events and others. Within each category are several letters that might be sent home for various reasons. Each one is written in English and then followed by the same letter in Spanish. They are pretty general, so they would be helpful in a variety of school settings. Many of them are very simple such as, there will be no school tomorrow, others are more indepth such as a sample grade report. And as I mentioned earlier, if you know even a little about the language you could add and change any letter to fit your purpose more completely.

During family car trips, children are notorious for asking the perennial question, "How much longer until we get there?" Now whether you are shuttling kids to a soccer game or on a long cross-country car vacation with the family, here's a valuable resource to turn your hours on the road into a valuable learning experience.

JOY RIDE!, FAITH-FILLED FUN AND GAMES FOR DRIVETIME by Jaqueline Lederman (Tyndale House Publishers) is a part of the Heritage Builders series. Targeted for all ages of children, this book is packed with ideas. As the author writes, "The goal of this book is to provide families with a good Christian growth resource for use in the car." The information is divided into three sections: games, discussion starters and Bible challenges.

The travel games help children learn new information and also use creative thinking to stretch children spiritually. As for keeping score, the author suggests you do what works for your child. If scoring and prizes motivate the child to play, then use it. The discussion starters contain several sections--jump start (to set the scene for discussion), speeding up (follow-up questions to continue the discussion), look at the map (a Bible verse to bring it into the conversation) and travel plan (the personal application section where children relate it to their lives). The final section, Bible Challenge, has three levels of difficulty: Easy, Moderate and Hard. No matter which type of question, the answers are included in the book and everyone in the family can increase their Bible knowledge from these challenges.

The author includes a caution in the introduction to this book, "You are wise not to make every trip in the car into a Bible learning time, and not to make every game or discussion end with a pointed moral lesson. Use your drivetimes to develop your relationships with your children and find out how they are doing, how their friends are, what they're up to, and so on."

This tool has potential for overuse but can be invaluable for every family with the right balance. When you're planning the next stint in the car, pull this small title from your glove compartment.

It's July! Pack the car with baggage, food, and the kids. Head for fun and relaxation. But first, prepare for the hours on the road. Make the most of the time with Joy Ride; Faith-filled Fun & Games for Drivetime by Jacqueline Lederman. The games, discussion starters, and Bible challenges will enable you to interact happily with your children. As an added bonus, even you may learn new information (Oh yeah - it might be a good idea to bring your Bible along on the trip.)

For ease of use, the author has indexed activities by interest, trip destination, and topic. Plan to stick this paperback book in your glove compartment before you leave on vacation.

Great stuff in here. Some of it is WAY over my 4-yr old's head, but I think it will prove to be a great resource over the years to come