Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking - Softcover

Opie, Iona Archibald; Opie, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0863156665 ISBN 13: 9780863156663

Publisher: Floris Books, 2008

Synopsis

Perhaps this book should come with a warning to parents: within these pages, children deliberately scare each other, ritually hurt each other, take foolish risks, promote fights, and play ten against one. Yet throughout, they consistently observe their own sense of fair play. Through the 1960s, Iona and Peter Opie did an exhaustive survey of the rough-and-tumble games that children actually play--normally out of sight, as opposed to formal sports or games supervised by parents--between roughly six and twelve years.

The result was their classic work, Children's Games in Street and Playground. To aid a clear and lively presentation of their remarkable study, the original single book has here been divided into two volumes. Both record games played by 10,000 children from the Shetland Isles to the Channel Islands, though most come from big cities such as London, Bristol, and Glasgow.

The books include many favorites, such as "The Dreaded Lurgi"; "What's the Time Mr. Wolf?"; "Stuck in the Mud," and "British Bulldog." Each game--more than 125--is described in detail, including many rhymes and sayings, regional variations, and historical notes.

The children of the 1960s, the Opies noted, are often thought "to be incapable of self-organization, and to have become addicted to spectator amusements," to the extent that adults must be relied on to provide play materials, ideas, and time to play with them. The same attitudes are still widespread today, with our concerns about television and computer games and the middle-class parental impulse to fill children's days with organized classes and play dates. There are important lessons in this book about giving children the time and physical space they need to learn how to be themselves with other children.

About this title

About the Author:

Iona Archibald Opie (born 1923) and Peter Mason Opie (1918-1982) met during World War II and together became a renowned husband-and-wife team of folklorists with a particular interest in children's toys, games and literature. They have written more than thirty books, including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1952) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). Iona Opie lives in Hampshire, England.

Review:

'The Opies have compiled the most complete and the most sympathetic, also the most sensible account of what children prefer to do on their own.' -- Country Life 'It is a work of serious anthropology and sociology ... but unlike most works concerned with these disciplines, it is consistently readable, always humane, and sometimes very funny.' -- New Statesman 'A fascinating book, the product of many years' immensely detailed and original research, which is bound to become the standard work upon the history and modern practice of street games.' -- New Society 'Fascinating research ... I hope that the publication of this book will revive the debate about the kinds of games our children play.' -- David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network Review 'Thank goodness Floris Books has published these two classic books, where the Opies' have recorded the traditional games that children across the UK played while out of the sight of adults. Most parents will relate to descriptions of the games they themselves played. This new edition promotes an active and natural approach to family life and child development.' -- Kindling, Spring/Summer 2009 'The authors have immersed themselves in a child's world readily pronouncing one game "jolly" and another "appllingly tedious". It is exactly these personal touches and the evident affection that the authors have for their subjects that lifts the book from being solely an impressive catalogue of children's games to being an engaging exploration of a domain unsullied by adult intervention' -- The Social Creditor

About this edition

• Publisher: Floris Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0863156665
• ISBN 13: 9780863156663
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 235