The Little Witch’s Black Magic Book of Games by Linda Glovach, 1974.

This book is part of the Little Witch series of craft and hobby books.  This one is all about games, but not board games. The games are more like party games or games that young children can play on playgrounds or while hanging out with friends.  The Little Witch’s Code in the beginning has rules for playing fairly and keeping a good attitude while playing.

The games in the book are grouped first by the number of players, with some games that players can play alone and others for two or three players and some for larger groups.  There are also some special games to play on holidays.

Most of the games are very simple and good for young children.  Some of them are classics, like Sardine; Stay Serious; Duck, Duck, Goose; and Rock, Scissors, Paper. These are games that most American children play when they’re in school or in other youth groups like after-school programs/daycare, scouting groups, church groups, or summer camps. In other words, kids naturally learn those games from other kids anywhere kids meet. Some of these games exist in different variations around the world, although the book doesn’t go into that. It just explains how to play them.

There are other games in the book that I don’t remember playing or hearing about as a kid. I don’t think that I’ve heard of Turtle Tag or Alligator and Fish before. I looked them up, and other people on the Internet know about Turtle Tag or variations of it, but I couldn’t find other mentions of Alligator and Fish. I think they might have started as regional games that I didn’t know about as a kid because people didn’t play them where I grew up.

The section that I particularly liked was the section of holiday games. I like the idea of theme parties, and the story-telling game that the book recommended for Halloween could fit with other theme parties as well.