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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource for teachers and tellers alike
Review: Doug Lipman never fails to disappoint, and this book is no exception. He provides a wealth of language-based activities that can not only enhance storytelling abilities, but can be used to reinforce classroom skills and concepts or provide a fun team building game. The games are rated and ranked in every possible fashion, making it easy to choose just what is needed for a group; by age group, by level of complexity, by cultural background, by type of skills emphasized, all neatly indexed in the back of the book for quick reference. There are games for math and science, games for learning about cultures, games to enhance oral communication skills. The introductory chapters provide rationale and ideas for creating a joyful learning environment. Each game is described fully, with a script to make it easy for one to pick the book up and try a game when a few minutes are left at the end of class. Even adults can have fun with these games. I haven't laughed as hard as I did when I used one during a storytelling session I was hired to do with a family holiday gathering. I used the game "Letter Relay," in which the group had to build a story, taking turns sentence by sentence. Sounds easy? Here was the catch. Each subsequent sentence had to begin with a word that started with the last letter of the last word in the previous sentence. By the end of the evening, mysterious boxes had been left on doorsteps, containing magical Beanie Babies that transported the recipient to all kinds of strange and wild adventures. All of us in that living room were transported into fits of laughter as the story wound its way to a very final conclusion. I highly recommend this book, and encourage families in particular to try some of these games instead of turning on the tv. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for teachers and tellers alike
Review: Doug Lipman never fails to disappoint, and this book is no exception. He provides a wealth of language-based activities that can not only enhance storytelling abilities, but can be used to reinforce classroom skills and concepts or provide a fun team building game. The games are rated and ranked in every possible fashion, making it easy to choose just what is needed for a group; by age group, by level of complexity, by cultural background, by type of skills emphasized, all neatly indexed in the back of the book for quick reference. There are games for math and science, games for learning about cultures, games to enhance oral communication skills. The introductory chapters provide rationale and ideas for creating a joyful learning environment. Each game is described fully, with a script to make it easy for one to pick the book up and try a game when a few minutes are left at the end of class. Even adults can have fun with these games. I haven't laughed as hard as I did when I used one during a storytelling session I was hired to do with a family holiday gathering. I used the game "Letter Relay," in which the group had to build a story, taking turns sentence by sentence. Sounds easy? Here was the catch. Each subsequent sentence had to begin with a word that started with the last letter of the last word in the previous sentence. By the end of the evening, mysterious boxes had been left on doorsteps, containing magical Beanie Babies that transported the recipient to all kinds of strange and wild adventures. All of us in that living room were transported into fits of laughter as the story wound its way to a very final conclusion. I highly recommend this book, and encourage families in particular to try some of these games instead of turning on the tv. You won't be sorry.
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