Rory's Story Cubes is a pocket-sized creative story generator, providing hours of imaginative play for all ages. There are infinite ways to play with Rory's Story Cubes - Try them as a party game or ice-breaker, for literacy development, speaking and listening skills, creative inspiration, a mental workout or problem solving. Anyone can become a great storyteller and there are no wrong answers. Simply roll the cubes and let the pictures spark your imagination.

Features:

• 1 or more players
• Reinforces artistic expression
• Ages 8 and up
• Playing time: 15 minutes

The game map changes every time for an endless variety of play. View larger.

Settlers of Catan engages both children and adults, garnering best-seller status in both Germany and the US. View larger.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good:Engaging strategy game that's different each time you play The Bad:Requires three or four players In a Nutshell:The Settlers of Catan is fun, easy to learn, and keeps advanced players on their toes At a Glance Ages:10 and up Requires:Three or four players

On the Road to Settlement
The game rules and almanac booklet sets out four pages of guidelines for getting started. Don't worry, the rules are straightforward and the four pages include plenty of illustrations. There's a starting map that shows a well-balanced set-up for beginners to follow and directions that allow more advanced players to lay out the map of the island at random. You'll have to pop the die-cut components of the game out of their cardboard holders before you play your first game.

The almanac portion of the booklet is laid out alphabetically, so while playing you can find answers to specific questions quickly. Useful entries remind you exactly what role pieces like the robber play, how actions like maritime trade work, and how to set up the board or finish the game.

Exploring and Developing Catan
The board consists of 19 terrain hexes surrounded by the ocean. Each type of terrain produces a different type of resource: brick, wool, ore, grain or lumber. There's also a desert hex that produces no resources. As the game progresses, players use resources to build roads along the edges of these hexes and settlements or cities on the intersections where three hexes meet. Each player begins the game with two settlements and two roads.

Each player's roll of the dice causes certain hexes to produce resources, which you collect if you have a settlement on one of them. On your turn, you'll use various combinations of the resources you've acquired to build new roads and settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, or purchase development cards. The ability to trade resources with other players adds a new level of strategy and ensures that the game includes lots of interaction between players. You can also trade without worrying about other players using an unfavorable maritime trade rate. Elements including a robber piece that lets you steal from other players and a variety of development cards add intrigue to the game.

The objective of The Settlers of Catan is to be the first one who collects 10 victory points. Each settlement is worth one victory point and each city is worth two victory points. You can also earn victory points by holding the "Longest Road" card, the "Largest Army" card, or special victory point development cards.

Best-Selling Game of the Year
It's easy to see why The Settlers of Catan has been recognized as a best-selling Game of the Year in both Germany and the U. S. We found this game to be fun and engaging for both children and adults, and the variable nature of the playing field really made us want to play again and again. When we started pausing to contemplate our opponents' strategy and factoring the probability of different dice rolls into our moves, the game sometimes took longer than expected, but we were so engrossed we didn't even notice until it was all over.

Due to the widespread popularity of the original game, several expansion sets (sold separately) are available that allow you to explore new aspects of the game or add more players. The only downside to this game is that you need to have either three or four players to play, so it's great that expansion sets are available that will allow you to add players.

Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 At a Glance: Age:8 years and up Requirements:2 AA batteries (not included) Warranty:Warranted against manufacturer's defects Upgrade Kit: UC-30: Upgrades to SC-300 UC-40: Upgrades to SC-500 UC-60: Upgrades to SC-750 AC-SNAP: Battery replacement kit

Build 101 different electronic projects. View larger.

Electric Bombing Game View larger.

Create Working Electronic Circuits
Snap Circuits comes with over 30 pieces to create 101 different electronic projects. The pieces, which include snap wires, slide switches, an alarm circuit, a music integrated circuit, and a speaker, snap together easily on the included plastic grid--no soldering required. Each piece is numbered and color-coded to make identifying them easy. These components combine to create working circuit boards just like the ones found inside televisions, radios, and other electronic devices.

Simple, Fun Projects Let Kids Learn While They Play
With its easy-to-follow instructions, Snap Circuits gives your child a hands-on education in how electrical circuits work to run the everyday devices that they're familiar with. They'll also gain valuable lessons in building and in following instructions. The project manual includes large color illustrations and simple directions for each project.

The projects include a sound-activated switch, a musical doorbell, a voice-controlled lamp, a flying saucer, and a light police siren. With these projects, children will experiment with things like electric switches, integrated circuits, digital circuits, fuses, and the transformation of circuit sounds into other sounds.

Grow as You Go
Because the projects are arranged in order of complexity, kids can build on their skills as they progress through the manual. The lessons start out with a simple electric light and switch project that demonstrates how electricity is turned on and off with a switch. Further along, kids can put together a two-speed fan, create clap-controlled sounds, and more.

Design Your Own Circuits and Upgrade Your Kit
Once children have mastered several of the techniques introduced in this kit, they can use the components to experiment and create their own customized circuits and electronic devices. The Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 can also be upgraded to the Snap Circuits SC-300, Snap Circuits Pro, or Snap Circuits Extreme with the purchase of a UC-30, UC-40, UC-60 upgrade kits, respectively. Kids will enjoy additional parts, manuals, and projects that'll take their kit--and their fun--to the next level.

Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 requires two AA batteries, which are not included.

What's in the Box
Plastic snap-grid, 32 electrical components, and 1 project manual.