Journey to Gameland: How to Make a Board Game from Your Favorite Children's Book Review

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(More customer reviews)Written by a kid (with adult help) and illustrated by the kid's brother, JTG is a remarkable way to encourage creativity and get kids to do something besides watch TV or play on the computer.
This isn't an adult book, so some of the advice (how to make money, pawns, etc) might make grown-ups cringe and cry out that it is too crude or unfinished. So what? We're talking make-believe.
Buchanan goes step by step, offering advice and warning where difficulties might come in. His technique is simple and obvious, and any child can modify his advice to suit (soccer, favorite movie, family things). He even includes a super book list!
I bought this book at a local bookstore and even though I have no kids and have nobody to play board games with I think this is easily a five-star book. You can even use it as a birthday party event (directions included).
This is a marvelous edition to a family, school or church library. You won't be sorry.

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Take a journey through your favorite book and transform it into a board game! Choose your characters, design your board, and create obstacles and other fun activities all according to what happens in your favorite book. Learn how to take the joy of reading to another level and discover your own creativity. Eleven-year-old Ben Buchanan, who created a board game based on the popular Harry Potter books, provides advice for all children who would like to turn their favorite book into a board game. Along with his co-authors, he offers a step-by-step process, with suggestions for parents, librarians, and teachers, on how to help children transform their favorite book into a board game. The book shows how you can have hours of fun creating the board game--and then have lots more hours of fun playing! Journey to Gameland encourages children to develop their own creativity. Journey to Gameland and My Year with Harry Potter are part of a series designed to enhance the creativity of children through engagement with books.

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Henry Potty and the Pet Rock: An Unauthorized Harry Potter Parody (Special Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Henry Potty and the Pet Rock is an adorable unauthorized Harry Potter parody written by Valerie Estelle Frankel. Henry Potty is the baby left in an asparagus crate on the doorstep of the Dorky family, relegated to the lowly status of household slave. Though his daily duties involve catering to the whims of Dumpy Dorky and his Dorky parents, Henry is fully aware that he is destined to be the hero of the novel, and bides his time with a room filled with the various action figures, games, and merchandise that will inevitably be in demand when his heroics are recognized.
When Henry receives an acceptance letter to Chickenfeet Academy in California from Professor Bumbling Bore, the Dorkys are eager to send him on his way. With the lackluster aid of his fairy godmother, Henry boards the Chickenfeet trainer for his new life as a "gizzard." Once at school, Henry and his classmates are greeted by the large and hairy Higgle, who ushers them on to a long and boring introduction from Professor Bore, then to dorm selection by the "sorting rat" under the direction of Miss McGonk. After being bitten by the sorting rat, Henry meets his new Heroes Dorm roommates, Horrendous Gangrene, a "which," and Really Wimpy, another gizzard. While Horrendous and Really work to defeat the pungent Lord Revolting while keeping up with their school assignments, Henry will valiantly take the credit for their accomplishments.
Though intended as a children's book, Henry Potty and the Pet Rock has no discernable age limit, as the cover reveals when it states "For ages 2-222." The story flows with a corniness that will make young children giggle, dotted with random jokes to keep an adult reader's attention.
Armchair Interviews says: Even Frankel's bio at the end of the book is filled with humor.

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Henry Potty and the Deathly Paper Shortage: An Unauthorized Harry Potter Parody Review

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Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (7/08)
As you can probably discern from the title of the book, "Henry Potty and the Deathly Paper Shortage," is a spoof on author J. K. Rowling's ever-popular Harry Potter series of books. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, "Henry Potty and the Pet Rock," this newest book by Valerie Estelle Frankel, chronicles more creative adventures of Henry Potty. In this book, Lord Revolting has divided his soul up into seven Plot Devices and it is up to Henry Potter to find and destroy them. There are many challenges to overcome and creatures to defeat like mimes, extremists, and even the Tooth Fairy. Will he be able to destroy the Plot Devices in time or will he be defeated by a paper shortage?
"Henry Potty and the Deathly Paper Shortage" is a silly, hilarious book that is perfect to read when you want to take a break from reality. Travel to Frankel's fantasy world, which is full of outrageous characters and funny story lines, and be prepared for a wild ride! Even with loads of wacky characters and crazy situations the plot flows very smoothly. This relatively short book, at 169 pages, flies by and I read it from cover to cover in one afternoon. It is a perfect summer read and is a great book to take to the beach. However, be prepared for questions if you read the book in a public place! At least three times I got asked, "Does that say `Henry Potty' on the cover?"
The book is very creative and the plays on the original Harry Potter series, as well as on other fairy tales and fantasy characters, are ingenious! I have only read a couple of the books in the Harry Potter series and think that if you are an avid fan you will completely appreciate this parody of the series and will understand all of the humor. Even if you can't stand the original Harry Potter books, I think that you will enjoy this book because of the way it pokes fun at the series. You definitely can't go wrong in choosing Frankel's newest parody!


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Harry Potter Und der Stein der Weisen (German Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Chances are if your thinking on buying this book in German, you've probably already read the Englsih version, so I won't bog you down with any lengthy opinion on the story itself except to say it is a modern classic, full of mystery and suspense that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.
Foreign language versions of English novels are notoriously difficult to translate, largely due to the high number of English words which have no exact translation in say, German or French. But on the whole, this was an exceptionally translated peice, with no major blunders sticking out (the Spanish version is full of them) The most obvious chnage is of "Hermione" to "Hermine" Perhaps Hermione would feel strange to pronounce to a native German speaker, not sure on that one.
A lot of people will tell you Spanish and French are far easier to learn than German. I found German more fun to learn, most people who say it is a difficult, technical language do not know that English and German belong in the same group of languages (Germanic) French, Spanish and Italian are in a completely different group (Romantic) So to brush up on language skills, or just to have fun reading a novel in another language, HP is probably the most fun and easy to understand novel on the market.

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Harry Potter A L'Ecole Des Sorciers (Harry Potter (French)) (French Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I took French years ago but like many US citizens, I rarely had the opportunity to actually use even what little I knew. Remembering the old saw that "If you don't use it, you lose it," I tried from time to time to improve my reading skills by taking up a book that I knew I had enjoyed in English. Although still difficult to find, books in French are becoming more common than they used to be and less expensive too. I found this one with little difficulty on Amazon, and have added other books in the language from the site to my wish list.
I was so successful in reading and understanding the simple French of Harry Potter, that I was almost at my normal reading speed. Although there were sentances and phrases that did not always make sense to me, I found that if I pronounced the French words in my mind rather than trying to translate the material into English, I often understood much better. I also found that the next time I ran across a new or difficult word that I had found in one context, I recognized its meaning much more quickly in another. Just as in learning to read English as a young person, I find that reading persistantly is the key to developing a vocabularly.
Though I don't ever expect to be a fluent French speaker and will probably never sit down and write my reviews in any language but English, I really, really, really enjoyed having an opportunity to re-read Harry Potter, this time in French. I recommend the series to parents of children learning to read French and adults who wish to improve their language skills.

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