Ferrer - The art of stone skipping and other fun old-time games : stoopball, jacks, string games, coin flipping, line baseball, jump rope, and more

Adult supervision is recommended for any activity involving scissors, candles and flames, or other possibly harmful items. The author and the publisher are not responsible for the use or misuse of any activity in this book.

An Imagine Book
Published by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
85 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02472
(617) 926-0329
www.charlesbridge.com

Text copyright 2012 by J. J. Ferrer.
Illustrations copyright 2012 by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Interior and cover design by Melissa Gerber.
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock image used with the permission of Sam Kass and Karen Bryla.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Printed in China in September 2012.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ferrer, J. J.
The art of stone skipping and other fun old-time games : stoopball, jacks, string games, coin flipping, line baseball, jump rope, and more/ by J. J. Ferrer ; illustrated by Todd Dakins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60734-537-4
1. Games. I. Title.
GV1203.F368 2012
790.1922dc23

2012015052

ISBN 978-1-936140-74-9
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

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To all those moms who kept the welcome mat out and the Kool-Aid coming: Thanks for a wonderful childhood. May there be many more like you for generations to come. J.J.F.

A rchaeologists have found enough carved wooden game pieces, leather balls, and clay dice to prove that playing games has been a part of every civilization since the beginning of time. Even in cultures where children were expected to work alongside adults rather than play freely, kids have always turned to games for fun and recreation, whether competing against friends or simply challenging themselves. We know from artifacts that children were playing board games in China as early as 2000 BC, marbles in Greece by 400 BC, and ball in Egypt by 2 BC.

Balls may well be the oldest of all toys. Early ones were made from strips of leather, cloth, or papyrus sewn together, then stuffed with hair, feathers, or straw. Balls were also made from animal skulls and bladders and, in some cultures, even the heads of enemies! Simple games of catch, in which one child threw a ball up in the air and caught it or two children tossed a ball back and forth to each other, probably happened as soon as Cain and Abel were old enough to walk. But history tells us that the first organized ball games happened in Mexico nearly four thousand years ago, with teams of two to six players trying to get a really heavy ball across their opponents goal line. Ball games werent always just for fun, though: Sometimes they had religious purposes, and sometimes the losing team lost their heads as well as the game!

Card games have also been around a really long time; they date back to the seventh century. Archaeological evidence of cards made from animal skins, ivory, leaves, leather, and woodblock prints has been found in China, India, Korea, and the Middle East. While todays cards are typically rectangular and made of paper or plastic, with four suits, fifty-two cards, and two jokers in the deck, earlier cards were often round, with three suits and a deck of only thirty. No one knows exactly how kings, queens, jacks (a servant boy), and jokers became the poster people for cards, but its probably because card playing was a favorite game of the courtand you know those royal egos. At one point, some monarchy even declared that card playing was off-limits to commoners! But thankfully that changed, and today playing cards is a favorite hobby for people of all ageseven those of us without kingdoms and crowns.

Most games that we play today have their roots in early diversions that were passed down from one generation to the next. Fun as they were, the games were often a way to teach skills and strategies critical for survivaleverything from patience and ingenuity to speed and accuracy. Today, these time-honored games still help children learn new skills, discover unknown strengths, and build peer relationswhich translates directly into solving problems, creating solutions, and becoming a good team player.

The real purpose of games, though, is to guarantee children a good timeby themselves, with a buddy, with their class, with Grandpa, or maybe even with the family pet. This book contains games that have been vetted by millions of boys and girls, many over thousands of years. They require little equipment and no batteries or electricity, the rules are simple, and the variations are endless.

Enjoy.

WHO: 2 or more players

WHAT YOU NEED: a small rubber ball, any paved surface that abuts a wall (ideal situation is a sidewalk with marked squares; you can also use tape or chalk to create a box for each player)

OBJECT: Be the last player to get 11 points.

Players stand in a line parallel to the wall, each in a defined square. Play moves from left to right. The first player, the Ace, bounces the ball off the ground so that it hits the wall and bounces into the square of the player on his right (the King). The King then rebounds the ball onto the sidewalk, off the wall, and into the square of the third player (the Queen). Play continues down the line until it reaches the last player, then play reverses back up the line from right to left. Anyone who misses a ball gets a point and moves to the end of the line, with everyone else moving one space to the left. If the Ace misses a shot, he goes to the end of the line, but does not get a penalty point. As each player reaches 11 points, she must stand in front of the others, bend over, and let each player toss a ball at her backside. This is called Butts Up. The last person to reach 11 points is the winner.

Players can only hit the ball with the palms of their hands.

A player must bounce the ball on the ground once before it hits the wall.

If a player misses the ball on the rebound or hits it out of bounds, he gets a penalty point and must move to the end of the line.

If someone (a fellow player, spectator, passerby) gets in the way when a player is trying to hit the ball, the player can call Interference! and start again. If a player deliberately tries to prevent the ball from hitting the wall, however, that player is out of the game.

Let whichever player is closest to the ball return it.

Play to 21 points (or any number youd like) instead of 11.