Review of UNBORED Games: Serious Fun for Everyone

by ParentCo. March 18, 2015

UNBORED Games: Serious Fun for Everyone is more than an awesome activity book. It's also a guidebook to creativity, adventure, and learning. It's one of my very favorite books for kids and families.

One of the persistent (and often annoying) questions parents hear from our kids is "What should I do?" This book amply answers that question. UNBORED Games is the second book in a series that began with UNBORED: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun (reviewed here). It's described as the "best games book" ever, and I have to agree. There are more than seventy games featured in the book (including 50 new ones). Read the UNBORED Games Manifesto Games are divided into four sections, each featuring a mix of high and low tech games, as well as active and sedentary games. The sections are: - PWNAGE, with clapping games, Highland games, Secret rules games, more. - Home Games, with game night games, board game hacks, apps to play with grownups, backyard games and more. - Game Changers, which encourage cooperation, team building and even activism. - Adventure Games, based around exploration, role-playing, and experimentation. UNBORED Games has three levels of utility: it curates the best games around, it presents brand-new games, and it's guided by an ethos. That ethos is: "gaming is a whole culture for kids to explore." To that end, UNBORED Games explains how kids can hack, extend and reinvent games for themselves. Fun, yes, but also increasingly critical skills in our culture and economy. It's the only games book I know of with this point of view. A bit of a confession: I'm never excited about family game night until we're actually playing a game together. Then, of course, I love it. So, even though I love this book, I'm not naturally a huge "games book" person. When I confessed this to authors Joshua and Elizabeth, Josh had a brilliant suggestion: get snacks. Go for the snacks, stay for the game. It totally works. This book is written for kids to read. In fact it has sections telling kids how to involve their parents and grandparents in games. But parents will really want to read it, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Joshua Glenn is cofounder of the influential web sites Significant Objects, Hilobrow, and Semionaut. He has authored and edited a number of books. He lives in Boston and has two sons. Follow Joshua on Twitter (as Hilobrow). Elizabeth Foy Larsen was a member of the team that launched the awesome magazine Sassy. Her writing on families has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Daily Beast, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis with two sons and a daughter. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter.

MORE INFO

For more information on UNBORED Games as well as the original UNBORED Book, visit Unbored.net. Connect on Facebook at Facebook.com/unboredguide. Look inside the book on Amazon.com. Get it there or direct from Bloomsbury Publishing.

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