- Encourages active play
- Clever interpretation of beloved book
- Rules, game play easy to understand
- Fun for kids of varying ages
- Lots of pieces to store or keep track of
- Recommended for ages 4-8
- Low-tech game (no sound effects, buzzers or batteries)
- Requires some simple reading
This new game is based on one of my favorite books to read aloud, The Cat in the Hat. It's a simple premise: Can you, the player, do some of the crazy stuff the Cat might do, like balance a boat on your nose or a cake on your knee? While also jumping up and down or doing the limbo?
The game comes with small, sturdy cardboard or plastic game pieces (the cake, the rake, the fish, the gown, and so on), activity cards, and the "trick-a-ma-stick" foam bar. The trick-a-ma-stick adds extra challenges to several of the game actions--you may have to go over it, under it, or around it, for example.
We found it easy to grasp (no spending 20 minutes reading the instructions before you play, while the kids spontaneously combust) and fun to play for a 3-, 6-, and 30something-year-old. (It's recommended for ages 4-8, because of the small pieces and the fact that bigger kids/parents won't fit under the trick-a-ma-stick!) A nice bonus was that my 6-year-old got some reading practice by reading the to-dos on the cards for everyone.
One minor caveat: Even though this game doesn't use a board, its box is a little bigger/taller than your typical board game box. Be aware if storage is an issue for you (although you could probably stash all the parts in a large plastic zipper bag and ditch the box to save space).
