Marbles, hopscotch and jacks

This is one of a series of books published by Angus & Robertson that cover origami and games and all of the books are worth collecting. The instructions are clear and the illustrations of Louis Silvestro are always humorous and charming. In this book a little cartoon mouse always seems to be in almost the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to escape the flying marbles or jacks. The visual humour adds to the overall pleasure of these books. This book briefly covers a bit of the history of the traditional games of marbles, hopscotch and jacks that are played around the world and then gives instructions for playing various games. The book is divided into three sections corresponding to the games of the title: Marbles, Hopscotch, and Jacks. The Marbles section covers shooting your marble tips, game preparations, shooting practice and then thirteen games: * Bounce Eye * Spanners * Flick Spanners * No Spanners * Captures * Castles * King of the Castle * Castle Challenge * Castle Dice * Shoot Out * Shooting the Ring * Marble Arches * Fortress The Hopscotch section starts with seven hopscotch layouts and a bit of description about them and then has four games: * Hopsy * Names Hopsy * Potsy * More Potsy The Jacks section has a couple of paragraphs about the history of Jacks and then eleven games or tricks you can do: * Backhand Catch * One'ers * One to Four'ers * Reverses * Backhands * Challenges * Claws * Games for Experts * Fancy Tricks * Round the Square * Under the Arch

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.