The Games Book

Jean Free, a library consultant, was an elementary-school teacher and
librarian in Whitby, Ontario.

The Games Book, an ecology-oriented, inexpensive paperback by the
editors of OWL magazine, will help junior-grade students explore and
learn about their environment. Divided into activities for the four
seasons, it emphasizes recycling materials that should be common in most
homes.

Children can get ideas for creating their own board games as they learn
about pollution or about the difficulties faced by salmon in their life
cycle. Youngsters are encouraged to be “enviro-sleuths” as they
watch for things that help the environment in a car game or play games
from other cultures (tangrams from China, muk from the Inuit). They can
become creative storytellers using pictures from old magazines or solve
puzzles like “bear boggler.” A list of environmental organizations
is included. The Games Book is creatively illustrated by Thach Bui with
amusing line drawings to help explain activities for students in grades
3 to 6.

This would be a useful book for teachers and community workers seeking
a variety of games for children’s activities.