Best Board Games
Parents Magazine Best Toys of 2014. Dr. Toy's 10 Best Toys of 2014. 2014 Parents' Choice Award – Silver The magic of the New York Times bestseller Press Here is now available in game form! Hervé Tullet is known for his prodigious versatility, from directing ad campaigns to designing fabric for Hermès.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I'd read an interview with him that discussed what he tries to achieve when writing a children's book - "the idea that adults and children should collaborate with the book together, the element of surprise, the connection between abstract and concrete concepts..." In this neat book, he achieves what he sets out to do... it allows your child to feel like a magician, assisted by nothing more than yellow, red and blue dots! Beginning with a simple yellow dot your child presses (which "magically" - via your child pressing it - responds by turning into two yellow dots on the second page), the amount of dots, colors, patterns and sizes of the dots change as the book progresses, with a child learning the meaning of pressing, turning, rubbing, tapping, shaking, tilting, blowing, along with varying degrees of movement (gently, a little bit, a little bit more, hard, a little bit harder, really hard) - and direction (left, right, up, down). Toward the end, your child will be clapping to make the dots larger and larger and LARGER until finally that original one yellow dot (with a white hole in the center) is taking up the entire two page spread... at which point your child's encouraged to "Quick, press the white dot", with the final page showing the original yellow dot and saying, "Bravo!"
"LOL - okay, the wonderful review before mine is so chock full of great information on the book that I don't know how I can compare. Within moments, we were surrounded by every other child in the waiting room as they watched and listened in fasciation. This is truly a wonderful little book that proves imagination is more important and more effective than batteries! I told my daughter that it had been her favorite book when younger, so she asked me to read it to her. She's now shared the book with her kindergarten class and the kids keep asking her to bring it back."
"He calls it his magic color book."
"This book is loved by the whole family and a favorite at bedtime."
"This book is SO stinking adorable!"
"Awesome book!"
"This book is fun."
"It is better for younger kids that are more easily wowed."
Chalkfulloflove was created to encourage, inspire and make you giggle, so just pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and settle in to start your own unique, adorable lettering creations! Hardcover, oversized gold wire-o binding and gold corner protectors Step by step instructions on how to create various fonts and designs Thick premium paper, perfect for lettering Beautiful coffee table book and practical workbook. A day in her life looks like taking a crazy number of photos, dancing in the garage while packaging up orders, and cuddling with her pups.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is beautiful!"
"Love this!!!"
"BUT, the blank pages.... About 45% of the book is blank pages, not to mention all the white space. Pages 96-110 are ENTIRELY BLANK but for the page number, and so is almost half of the book."
"In purchasing a $30.00 book I expect more inside information, tips and tricks and showing me HOW she achieves her style of lettering, etc... For example, the flourishes pages literally just tells you that flourishes and illustrations are great to add to your lettering then shows you a 2" x 2" example of the author's own "Bless Your Heart" design (with zero instructions on how she achieved it) and has about a 6"x3" area next to that design that says "Practice Here.""
"I should have listened to the other people who reported that this book was full of nothing, but I was encouraged by the the claim that additional content was added."
Main entries include a brief definition, a part-of-speech label, and inflected forms for fast, easy word validation. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My son gets to use it, and we don't, so it evens up the play."
"Great gift along side Super Scrabble to keep player on the up and up."
"I'm no expert on Scrabble, but I'm finding this very useful in playing the Lumosity on-line games and keeping on hand when playing Scrabble with grandchildren."
"I teach English to English as a THIRD language and this dictionary makes expanding vocabulary (via scrabble play) extremely fun."
"It has a lot of words to get you out of a sticky situation when you have letters that you are sure you can't use."
"Very nice up to date Scrabble dictionary."
"As an avid player,using a dictionary definitely adds to the game.having gone through several paperbacks i thought. the additional words and hardcover would enhance the experience.Lots of new words makes it more fun."
Best Backgammon
In chapter 1 & 2, Beginner level, announcing 12 basic proverbs, which I really hope you will memorize. In chapter 3 & 4, Intermediate level, introducing you to 6 advanced proverbs. Michihito Kageyama: Professional backgammon player ranked number 2 in Giants of Backgammon 2015 Roland Herrera: Professional Violinist and Renaissance Man.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Now how about moves 3, 4, 5... Hit loose, split, run, make a point??? As noted in another review, this book has a unique way of guiding you through the thought process."
"I personally do not care much about the drawings in the book, but it is a good way to decrease the density of the material for the beginners."
"I still believe that you need to memorise opening replies, but this book will help you with the other part of the puzzle – understanding why you make certain moves and the concepts behind them."
"Great tips to help explain why certain moves (mostly in the opening phase) are correct."
"This book is excellent.It is great for all backgammon players beginners and advanced.Easy reading for learning all types of positions.The second book of the series I understand is coming out in March of 2018.Be sure you get that book also.Michi is one of the greatest backgammon players all over the world and I hope that everyone who wants to improve their game reads both books.Thank you,Michi for such a wonderful book."
"i guess i would say 3.5 to 4 stars but to take on such a project and come at the game in a completely new way....That is really giving back to the backgammon community."
"The book’s title says it all, as one of the world’s top players takes the reader through early game checker positions in a unique way that I’ve never seen in any of the more than two dozen backgammon books in my library."
"I also recommend that you enter some of the positions in XG and see how a small changes affect XG's evaluation, for example putting 9 checkers or more into the zone instead of 8 (a central guiding principle in the book) or move builders around (the 9P builder gets lots of attention)."
Best Checkers Game
How to Win at Checkers [Paperback].
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a great book."
"Now that I'm teaching my son the game, I decided to delve into the strategy of checkers - after all, I want my son to win enough times to build his confidence."
"This is the most complete book on checkers you will ever find, in or out of print. The book covers tactics such as traps and shots and then goes on to cover just about every important opening to at least some degree, often with main-lines and numerous variations."
"You get some really nice tips from a pro with this book."
"I found this book to be a very good introduction to checkers."
"This Book on How To Win At Checkers is a great read for a new checkers player at any age."
"Simply the best book there is on checkers IMHO."
Best Scrabble
It offers more than 5,000 new entries and has more than 100,000 playable two- to eight-letter words, including variant spellings with expanded coverage of Canadian and British words.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My son gets to use it, and we don't, so it evens up the play."
"Great gift along side Super Scrabble to keep player on the up and up."
"I'm no expert on Scrabble, but I'm finding this very useful in playing the Lumosity on-line games and keeping on hand when playing Scrabble with grandchildren."
"I teach English to English as a THIRD language and this dictionary makes expanding vocabulary (via scrabble play) extremely fun."
"It has a lot of words to get you out of a sticky situation when you have letters that you are sure you can't use."
"Very nice up to date Scrabble dictionary."
"As an avid player,using a dictionary definitely adds to the game.having gone through several paperbacks i thought. the additional words and hardcover would enhance the experience.Lots of new words makes it more fun."
Best Cities & Architecture Coloring Books for Grown-Ups
Satisfying the inner child and adult intellect all at once, this timeless activity is now revolutionized to create 20 pieces of fantastic, stylish line art readers will want to remove and display when finished. Graphic designer and experimental artist Thomas Pavitte uses simple techniques to create highly complex pieces.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I appreciate some of the other reviewers stating that these can be difficult and take some time to complete, but some of the negative reviews are pretty harsh and sound like they are just written by a bunch of grumpy people with no patience. Good thing Amazon reviews didn't exist in the 1800s when folks were moving West, we never would have gotten past the Mississippi River: "The wagon ride is harsh and the days are long."
"The only downside is the numbers were fairly small, I didn't realize how many little dots would be on each page. For most people that's alright, for the older generations it might be harder on their eyes. We saw this book and several similar at Barnes and Noble after I purchased it on Amazon."
"I got into doing dot-to-dot puzzles back in the early 2000s with the David Kalvitis books, then sort of lost interest. This is a large book -- about 10" x 14" -- and each puzzle occupies one single removable page. I'll be purchasing additional books by this artist -- winter is approaching, and our Pacific NW weather is conducive to cozying up indoors."
"So I bought a few other dot to dot books and this is my favorite by far!!!!!"
"Yes, there are a gazillion dots, but they're grouped according to color and I found with a good magnifying glass that I could complete each page, not easily though."
"I use a binder as an underlay, as for some reason the book doesn't have a flap to act as one."
"Pictures are of the book cover and the cities that you make."
"I particularly enjoy tackling it when I've had a stressful day or my thoughts are racing, since it's an easy activity that still forces me to concentrate on what's on the page."
Best Calligraphy Guides
Chalkfulloflove was created to encourage, inspire and make you giggle, so just pour yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and settle in to start your own unique, adorable lettering creations! Hardcover, oversized gold wire-o binding and gold corner protectors Step by step instructions on how to create various fonts and designs Thick premium paper, perfect for lettering Beautiful coffee table book and practical workbook. A day in her life looks like taking a crazy number of photos, dancing in the garage while packaging up orders, and cuddling with her pups.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is beautiful!"
"I just started brush lettering and already trashed one pen on another book, so this book is perfect in my opinion."
"Love this!!!"
"BUT, the blank pages.... About 45% of the book is blank pages, not to mention all the white space. Pages 96-110 are ENTIRELY BLANK but for the page number, and so is almost half of the book."
"In purchasing a $30.00 book I expect more inside information, tips and tricks and showing me HOW she achieves her style of lettering, etc... For example, the flourishes pages literally just tells you that flourishes and illustrations are great to add to your lettering then shows you a 2" x 2" example of the author's own "Bless Your Heart" design (with zero instructions on how she achieved it) and has about a 6"x3" area next to that design that says "Practice Here.""
"I should have listened to the other people who reported that this book was full of nothing, but I was encouraged by the the claim that additional content was added."
Best Other Art Media
Look for the sequels to The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia , with The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts and the upcoming Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia due out April 24th 2018. He is the series producer and manager of The Legend of Zelda and won the Golden Joystick Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The opening letter from Shigeru Miyamoto sets a wonderful, celebratory tone for the rest of the book. The first third of the book, entitled "The Legend Begins: The World of Skyward Sword" is devoted to said title, the most recently released Zelda game we all played and loved. It's filled to the brim with the concept and official art that inspired Skyward's Sword brilliant aesthetic style. As one who views Skyward Sword as one of the most beautiful and brilliantly inspired video games ever made in terms of its art design and visuals, this is just fine with me. There's tons here, including a lot of really interesting ideas for characters that didn't make it into the game, like a floating Fi in a massive suit of armor or Zelda designs that are decidedly more elegant and fancy. There's also a good amount of location art that is simply gorgeous and really captures your imagination, just like the settings in the game did. What is even better about this section is the following 70 or so pages that actually chronicles, in great detail, the events of each timeline in chronological order. Sprinkled liberally through all of this are nice screenshots and art, as well as fascinating tidbits, like boxes that fully decipher the various Hylian/Hyrulean dialect text that appear in the games. This section closes with a very nice letter from Eiji Aonuma, arguably the second most important man behind the Legend of Zelda, after Shigeru Miyamoto of course. The lay-outs are nice, the printing quality is vibrantly beautiful and sharp as a tack, and the pages are crisp and clean. The binding is also high quality, which is important because this is a big book that would fall apart relatively quickly if it wasn't bound well. There are few games that capture the sense of beauty, imagination, and adventure like the Legend of Zelda effortlessly does with each and every release."
"As a Zelda fan it's wonderful to have a physical book of all game events (from 1986=2011), concept images and developer interviews."
"There's translations of some of the games in-game language systems and explanations for why certain things are as they are, for example hinting that timeshift stones and the ocarina of time are made of the same time-travel capable material. If I had to say anything negative, it would be that perhaps learning about the development decisions made during other games would have been nice, particularly Majora's mask, instead of just showing Skyward Sword concept art."
"One thing that I wish this had, and I don't know why I assumed it would... but I have a Nintendo Power magazine of Zelda from the 90's that was pretty cool."
"I say, anything that will hold his attention for that long and he will read in it daily, I consider it a great buy."
"After going through Amazon in search of gift ideas, I came across this particular one and decided it might be a good gift to purchase for him."
Best Juggling
Learn exactly how working professionals eat fire in this tell-all book, written in an easy-to-follow "how-to" format. 172 pages - 208 illustrations - 24 effects - 8 spin flourishes - PLUS sections on material safety, torch construction, health risks, tips for the working professional, the history of fire eating, and more! See page 101. What can you do to save your life in the event of a fire eating mishap? The Professional's Guide to Fire Eating gets you detailed facts you need to know about fire eating, including one section NEVER BEFORE included in ANY fire eating manual to date. Johnson, Magician and Hypnotist. "This is The Bible of fire eating books."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Know your fuels know your mediums, know your surroundings, get to know your pain and discomfort tolerance levels and safety safety safety always. Get this book but in the name of all things common sense do not do any of this without the supervision of an experienced fire performer and safety crew."
"I have since learned how to eat fire properly, and can do plenty of very impressive fire tricks using this book as an instruction."
"Very informative, covers everything you need to know before trying this skill, lots of quality safety information, good variety of tricks and some interesting history."
"By far this is the best fire eating book out there."
"Awsome book."
"The price tag held me off on purchasing it for a few weeks while I tried to justify the 40 bucks or so on a book for a hobby, but once I received it, it was obvious why it's not the average Amazon paperback price, this thing is a text book."
"Great book."
"Brian not only gives you the down & dirty - he tells you his horror stories....if you want to perform this crazy stunt and are a chicken head eating geek like myself....it's a great place to start....warmest wishes to all !"