Toys and Games Books

I orginally purchased a copy of this book last year and used it constantly. When it got lost over the summer I was really upset. Luckily I found it on Amazon and ordered it immediately!! I teach 2nd and 3rd graders many of whom speak english as a 2nd language. This book is great for helping them practice their writing skills. They love drawing a picture to go along with their sentences!!!

50 More Ways to Use Your Noodle offered more GREAT ways to work with people, build teams, and have a great time. I've used the activities with junior high, high school, college, and adult age groups and they all enjoyed the activities and the follow-up discussions really helped open their eyes to new situations or ways of approaching challenges. Easy to follow instructions and fun reading. The biggest challenges I've faced with using these materials are deciding which of the fun activities to use and finding space to keep all of the noodle supplies between trainings! :-)

A must have for all reading educators. Nancy provides a very practical approach to vocabular instruction. Excellent resources throughout the text.

John Marshall is THE toy guru, and he takes a look at the 60s toys with humor and interesting insites. This is packed with photos and information for any collector, or even one trying to recapture their youth.

I was told by my child's teacher that she needed some flash cards for practicing math facts at home. When I visited my local store, no flash cards anywhere. I decided to hop on Amazon and order some, with a few other items, and get them shipped to me for free. Great idea! I got the cards. They are a nice size with big numbers so my daughter doesn't have to sit on my lap to do the problems. The corresponding answer is on the back of the card, so I don't have to flip the cards over to see the problem. Plus, the great thing is that there is a problem on both the front and the back.

A wonderful book for beginning and seasoned collectors, American history buffs and doll lovers young and old. Adult readers will appreciate the history and market prices. Children will love the numerous colorful pictures. Perfect for the home library or as a gift.

Arnoldsche, a leading German art publisher put this book out in 2004 and I wonder how long it will be before these scrap toys are considered folk art? They come from Ghana, Togo, Benin but mostly Burkina Faso, all dirt poor countries in West Africa. Re-cycled waste is probably made into toys in other parts of Africa and Asia but I wonder if they are as ingenious or colorful as the models in the book. Forty-two of them were made by Robert Compaore of Burkina Faso and he reveals in a short interview that some of the raw materials are actually bought from scrap markets.

All the photos feature vehicles of some kind: bicycles, scooters, tractors, cars, tanks, trucks, jets, helicopters, space ships and boats. Many of the vehicles have wheels made from the cut-off tops of aerosols which will give you an idea of their size. Some are really quite simple: a spark plug as the body of a motorbike with some bent wiring as the forks, handlebars, chassis and wheels made of blue painted wood.

I thought the best models were ones that used cut up metal packaging so that the logos, text and bar-codes were mixed together. On page 118-119 there is a stunning fifty-five inch long cargo ship from Ghana which is hard to consider as a toy. The models that don't feature commercial packaging do seem to look like potential art forms.

The almost square book is nicely produced (in 175dpi) with all the model photos as cutouts with an added drop shadow. Strangely the contents page is the last in the book and preceding that are some short text pieces (in three languages) and a sixteen page photo section of the toymakers. Overall I thought it was an intriguing book about the clever and creative uses of waste to produce some simple but fascinating toys.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

There are several things that make this book a stand-out. The first is the basic information about the types of marbles (antique, machine-made, modern) and the makers of the marbles. If you're looking for extensive historical information, this may not be the book for you. But if you collect marbles and are interested in good, basic information as well as tons of photos (most enlarged so you can see every detail) of a wide variety of marbles, this book fills the bill. While I'm no marble expert, I learned a grat deal from reading this one!

I have been collecting paper dolls since I was in college. This is one of the funnest ones that I have found. It was fun to put everything together, and the costumes are fabulous! My two daughters were always asking to see her in her different outfits. It would probably be best for an older audience to put together as it takes a lot of fine motor skills and direction reading skills, but children love to look at her and play with her after she is put together. I would love to have more of this type of doll.

I think my child is too young to understand the puppets included, she does love the stories and the size of the book is nice, a bit larger and lots to look at! Maybe better for 3 - 3 1/2 year olds who get what the little felt puppets are? I would still buy it, however!