review

Charity shop board games – Ingenious, Set and Retsami

18th October 2021 by Jax Blunt 2 Comments

I have mentioned regularly on social media how dedicated I am to charity shops. We’re fortunate to have around 10 in relatively easy walking distance, and I visit them a couple of times a week. As well as books and clothing, I look carefully at their games, craft and kids sections. Recently I’ve picked up several good board games, and I thought it might be worth sharing a quick review to try to get me back into blogging.

Most recent purchase was Ingenious from Green Board Games. Bought for the princely sum of £2 in Basic Life Charity, and available for your delight and delectation from a number of sellers on Ebay (affiliate link).

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this played before, possibly at a home ed camp? We didn’t have it though, so I was very happy to see it. My experience with board games is that Green Board Games are a good brand, and I don’t think we’ve had any from there we’ve strongly disliked.

In play, it borrows from dominos. But the pieces are two hexagons on a tile, and the board has hexagon places. You score by counting up the straight lines leading from where you’ve laid your tile, and across the different colours or shapes as the game continues. A nice twist is that your finishing score is actually taken from your weakest score across the shapes, meaning that you have to strategise to play all the colours as you go. Game is for 2-4 players and there’s a team variant, so plenty of ways to involve the whole family.

At some point recently also picked up a new copy of an old favourite. Many years ago I set up a coop to buy Set in the US and distribute it to families around the country. I think now you can probably buy it on Amazon, though this was the first time I’ve ever seen it in a charity shop. As I’ve no idea where our old copy went, I was pleased to grab a new one, and it’s been played several times since, including at a home ed group session. Again on Ebay, although most of the copies are in the US I’m afraid.

This can be played as a group or as a patience game, and the idea is you have to find the sets. Each attribute must be either all the same, or all different, so you could have all cards with one shape on them, all purple, all solid, but then they’d have to be one of each of the three different shapes. It’s a lot harder to explain than it is to demonstrate.

The final game of this review was one completely new to me. Retsami appears to have been designed by someone relatively local to us, but I couldn’t find out much about it. It’s played on a chequered playing board, with pieces not dissimilar to draughts. But there’s also a square spiral that marks the board, and you’re trying to get a piece to the centre. You can be taken by opponents pieces that are behind you, along any straight line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal. There are a few copies of this one on Ebay.

I might go find the game and get a picture and add it in, as I’m not sure that explanation is doing it much justice.

I think it’s a game with definite potential, but Tigerboy didn’t really cotton on, and didn’t want to play again, so I’ll have to find another opponent. Or bribe him. Whichever.

So there you go, three charity shop games that have been varying success. Do you use charity shops and have any games you’d recommend I should keep an eye out for?

Inscape by Louise Carey

20th January 2021 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Inscape by Louise Carey publishes on 21st January. Available from bookshop (affiliate) and other booksellers. Copy supplied free for the purpose of review.

Warning: use of this gate will take you outside of the InTech corporate zone. Different community guidelines may apply, and you may be asked to sign a separate end-user license agreement.

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Tanta has trained all her young life for this. Her very first mission is a code red: to take her team into the unaffiliated zone just outside InTech’s borders and retrieve a stolen hard drive. It should have been quick and simple, but a surprise attack kills two of her colleagues and Tanta barely makes it home alive.

Determined to prove herself and partnered with a colleague whose past is a mystery even to himself, Tanta’s investigation uncovers a sinister conspiracy that makes her question her own loyalties and the motives of everyone she used to trust.

I hate to publish a review post without finishing the book, but despite my best efforts, I’m not quite at the end of Inscape. This doesn’t reflect badly on the book – it’s a great read, rather on my ability to concentrate in current situation. (Please tell me I’m not the only person struggling with the focus needed to actually read a novel at the moment?)

The book is SF that rockets along, told in third person present tense. This isn’t one of my favourites, I usually find it a bit obtrusive, but it’s done very well in this book and has the effect of keeping the pace up and the story really flowing. I can easily see YA readers enjoying this as it sits in that crossover area with many similar characteristics to YA novels.

Tanta, the lead character, is great, and watching her character develop even in the short time span of the book (there’s a lot going on very quickly) is fascinating. I’ve just got to the part where it really starts getting involved, and you should all be impressed I’ve put the book down to write this review. Well worth a look, I recommend this for anyone enjoying futuristic dystopian fiction.

BBC micro:bit from PiHut – a great #HomeEducation resource

11th October 2020 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Disclosure: The product was provided free for review.

It’s all about tech these days, and while knowing how to use it is one thing, knowing how to program it is a whole other aspect. I admit to having a slight head start in this area, as an ex programmer, but the way I learnt to program, on a ZX81 typing in games out of a magazine wouldn’t really hold my kids’ interest.

Fortunately, there is a whole range of products out there that can help even the most tech illiterate of parents with their children’s IT needs. The one we are reviewing today is the BBC micro:bit, supplied for review by PiHut – see more here

The BBC micro:bit comes beautifully packaged in a small cardboard box with everything you need to get going. And when you first turn it on, it already has some programming.

This is a good touch, as it means that your test child is likely to be intrigued by the flashing lights and you get a quick win.

Once we’d exhausted the provided program (which did not take desperately long it has to be said) we headed online to look up how to write our own code.

After an abortive attempt to link with my phone (I don’t know quite what went wrong there, but it was not playing) we ended up at Microsoft Makecode. This has a number of example projects and rock paper scissors (no lizard Spock variation though) was a clear winner.

The editor is a drag and drop format, which means even the most code fearing parent will be able to get to grips with it. Although you’re unlikely to be needed much, except maybe for downloading the code to the microbit once written, and possibly for the occasional moment of trouble shooting. Once Tigerboy got to grips with the editor he was off and running, and I would say that the micro:bit is ideal for 8 – 11 year olds, as long as they are reasonably literate, and a little tech savvy.

Highly recommended, definitely a good way to get your child into game coding as well as game playing.

Thingamanose by Lynne Hudson

2nd October 2020 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Reviewed by Tigerboy.

It was really funny and I liked the end. Some of the rhyming is really good. I really like the illustrations, I saw new things in them each time I read it.

From the blurb

THINGAMANOSE is published in a fun and original format, a much longer picture book, that bridges the gap between picture book, comic book and chapter book. Ideal for ages 5 – 7, but we are sure it will appeal to some pre-school and some older primary school years, and hopefully draw in reluctant readers with its highly comic-book style.

Thanks for the review copy BeachyBooks, and you can buy it via our handy affiliate links.

Hive

Mini Monsters Can I Play by Caryl Hart and Tony Neal. #blogtour

12th June 2020 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Disclosure, I was sent a copy of this book free for review, links may be affiliate depending on whether I have them set up right.

First impressions of the book are that it’s bright, cheerful and sturdy. Which is good, as there’s a good chance you’ll be reading this quite a bit. Also, the words Mini Monsters on the cover are textured, which means that children may enjoy tracing the letters with their fingers. (And when I say children, I mean everyone, and when I say may, I mean we did. I do love a book with extra sensory input.)

The book itself tells the story of playtime not going as smoothly as it might. Sparkle wants to play with Arthur, and only Arthur. This means excluding Scout, which leads to Scout feeling hurt and Sparkle cross. Arthur is caught in the middle and looks after the hurt friend, but Sparkle works through it all and everyone is happy in the end.

Completely the sort of thing that happens with small children (and not so small children for that matter), and exactly the kind of book that will help you talk it through. Bright cheerful pictures and clear language, and I loved the illustration of the letters from Sparkle.) The book is the first in a series about these characters, which is good news, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

You can learn more about Caryl, the author, on her website here and there have been some great posts in the blog tour so far. You can find links to them by checking out Caryl on twitter.

I particularly enjoyed this post on StorySnug with some insight into the inspiration and writing of the series.

Check out the book on Waterstones (affiliate link) or support your local bookstore.

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