Tag: games

Early Pleasures and Pastimes cover

Fun and Games

Sports, Games, and Exercise 21 comments

Early Pleasures and Pastimes
Kalman
1947

Submitter: We found this gem in our Children’s department of our public library, on a recent much needed weed. The children on the cover seem to enjoy waterboarding Grandpa. The actual photos inside are very disturbing. They dare you to wrestle a bear, and how about the crying little girl watching her beloved turkey get it’s head chopped off. I don’t understand why we had this one on the shelves for so long!

Holly: None of these are pleasures or appropriate pastimes for children! Pretty sure Grandpa is bobbing for apples. He doesn’t seem to be very good at it, though.

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Games the Indians Played cover

Games the Indians Played

But it's Historical!, Sports, Games, and Exercise 8 comments

The Games the Indians Played
Lavine
1974

Submitter: This book uses outdated and culturally insensitive terms like “redskin.” It contains a decent amount of research from when the author was a teacher on a reservation. He interviewed many of the indigenous people there and I’m sure meant this to be a teaching tool about the culture, but it is a really old book that is now falling apart. Plus, it just gives off vibes of “oh, let’s look at the white man’s view of the savages’ primitive games.”

Holly: I’ve been learning a lot about collection diversity audits recently. While libraries may solely be looking for the percentage of materials about and by BIPOC, they need to use the opportunity to weed inappropriate materials like these. Please, please, don’t just count it as “diverse” and leave it in the collection! Look at the materials closely and audit the content while you’re at it.

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backgammon for blood

Backgammon for Blood

Sports, Games, and Exercise 10 comments

Backgammon for Blood
Becker
1975

I had no idea that backgammon was a blood sport.

I have never played backgammon, so I can’t speak to the quality of this book.The title is kind of cool, so points for that. I did take a look at the beginning chapters and still didn’t quite “get it”.  I’m not very quick on picking up games.

As a weeding candidate, unless the rules have changed or the tone or vocabulary is dated, I wouldn’t necessarily toss this. Given that the book is over 40 years old, it’s not too bad.

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