Fun and Games: Everyday Play

by Celeste Cortright, Sophie Fatus (Illustrations)

Follow a diverse group of children as they enjoy their favorite games! Readers can delight in familiar play like hide-and-seek to more unusual activities like tangrams, all while learning about the importance of taking turns and participating. Includes end matter about the cultural origins of the featured games and toys.

Genres: Picture Books

24 pages, Paperback

Published August 21, 2020

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/kidsfi...

FUN AND GAMES is a cute rhyming picture book about play. The book talks about basic toys such as dollhouses, dominos, and spinning tops. Each page contains a rhyme and is covered in bright colors featuring diverse children playing together. The ultimate message of the book is that what is the most fun is everyone playing together.

What I loved: The rhyming phrases are delightful for young children to hear and fun to read aloud. The story is very simple and its fun for young readers to see all the possibilities of play. The diversity of children featured is really great with a focus on inclusion in play and messaging. The book moves quickly with only a few short lines on each page, which will appeal to young children who can enjoy the fun details in the illustrations.

Final verdict: With a focus on play, FUN AND GAMES is a delightful picture book that will appeal to older infants through preschoolers. Bright colors and detailed illustrations add to the fun of the rhyming text.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually really cute and I can envision it working well in storytime. It's not a story per se, just descriptions of fun things you can do to play in rhyming text. A bit prescriptive, but the colorful illustrations are decidedly kid-friendly. This would work great if we were doing storytimes highlights the five early literacy practices, because this is a fun overview of various ways to "play".

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3.5 stars. The book highlights the different games that children play. I loved the colorful illustrations but didn't find the actual subject matter particularly engaging. I would have loved learning about games children play from other parts of the world but this seems to focus mostly on pretty well-known games in the United States.

[Syntha Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice back matter