This lavishly illustrated book takes a broad sweep through the history of Australian childhood, from the early nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on material from the Library's Pictorial, Manuscript, Ephemera and Newspaper Collections, and using excerpts from the Oral History Collection, in addition to specially commissioned feature articles from Robert Holden, and children's writers Steven Herrick, Ursula Dubosarsky and Jack Bedson, the book surveys and celebrates two centuries of growing up in Australia.
In his final work, a visionary game designer reveals how a surprising range of play-based experiences can unlock our imagination and help us capture the power of fun and delight. Bernard De Koven (1941–2018) was a pioneering designer of games and theorist of fun. He studied games long before the field of game studies existed. For De Koven, games could not be reduced to artifacts and rules; they were about a sense of transcendent fun. This book, his last, is about the imagination: the imagination as a playground, a possibility space, and a gateway to wonder. The Infinite Playground extends a play-centered invitation to experience the power and delight unlocked by imagination. It offers a curriculum for playful learning. De Koven guides the readers through a series of observations and techniques, interspersed with games. He begins with the fundamentals of play, and proceeds through the private imagination, the shared imagination, and imagining the world—observing, “the things we imagine can become the world.” Along the way, he reminisces about playing ping-pong with basketball great Bill Russell; begins the instructions for a game called Reception Line with “Mill around”; and introduces blathering games—Blather, Group Blather, Singing Blather, and The Blather Chorale—that allow the player's consciousness to meander freely. Delivered during the last months of his life, The Infinite Playground has been painstakingly cowritten with Holly Gramazio, who worked together with coeditors Celia Pearce and Eric Zimmerman to complete the project as Bernie De Koven's illness made it impossible for him to continue writing. Other prominent game scholars and designers influenced by De Koven, including Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Jesper Juul, Frank Lantz, and members of Bernie's own family, contribute short interstitial essays.
This book begins with the childhood sweetheart husband who was having strange behavior and nightmare flashbacks of Vietnam leaving his home. His wife and four young children are now stranded and alone. The wife is filled with two overwhelming emotions: (1) freedom, as no longer would she have to deal with this unfathomable behavior, and (2) extreme fear, fear of how she and the children would pay for food and rent in this most expensive city. As the endless calls come in from doctors, lawyers, police, and random women, the wife decides to test the citys infinite possibilities of love and hope. This puts her on the brink of insanity.
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 internationally bestselling author of The Overstory comes an epic tale of love, friendship and humanity’s next great adventure. When two brilliant misfits bond at an elite Chicago private school—one a white legacy kid named Todd Keane and the other, Rafi Young, a Black scholarship student from the South Side—their friendship seems as boundary-breaking and limitless as the 3,000-year-old board game that brings them together. For a time, not even simultaneously falling in love with Ina Aroita, who grew up in naval bases across the Pacific, shakes them. Until finally it does, with a betrayal that launches all three of them on radically different paths. Rafi disappears into literature, and Ina into art. Todd, who once dreamed of escape into the world beneath the surface of the ocean, revealed to him by the legendary Canadian diver and marine biologist Evie Beaulieu, becomes instead one of the most powerful tech billionaires on the planet whose social media empire, Playground, is remaking the global order with its AI breakthroughs. But not even wild success can insulate Todd from mortality. As illness eats away at the brain that built it all, he dreams of the life that could’ve been and the relationships he should never have let go. Before Todd’s final act is up, past loves and present ambitions collide on the ravaged Polynesian island of Makatea, where an unnamed corporation hopes to build the first floating, autonomous city on the open sea. Traversing borders and oceans, connection and loss, ingenuity and transcendence, Playground brings to light the systems of competition, cooperation, commerce, exploration and love that tie the fates of unlikely humans together, in Richard Powers’ most transporting work of fiction yet.
In 1974, Rick Telander intended to spend a few days doing a magazine piece on the court wizards of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant. He ended up staying the entire summer, becoming part of the players' lives and eventually the coach of a loose aggregation known as the Subway Stars. Telander tells of everything he saw: the on-court flash, the off-court jargon, the late-night graffiti raids, the tireless efforts of one promoter-hustler-benefactor to get these kids a chance at a college education. He lets the kids speak for themselves, revealing their grand dreams and ambitions. But he never flinches from showing us how far their dreams are from reality. The roots of today's inner-city basketball can be traced to the world Telander presents in "Heaven is a Playground," the first book of its kind. Rick Telander is a senior writer for "Sports Illustrated" and the winner of the 1987 Notre Dame Club Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism.
How filling life with play-whether soccer or lawn mowing, counting sheep or tossing Angry Birds -- forges a new path for creativity and joy in our impatient age Life is boring: filled with meetings and traffic, errands and emails. Nothing we'd ever call fun. But what if we've gotten fun wrong? In Play Anything, visionary game designer and philosopher Ian Bogost shows how we can overcome our daily anxiety; transforming the boring, ordinary world around us into one of endless, playful possibilities. The key to this playful mindset lies in discovering the secret truth of fun and games. Play Anything, reveals that games appeal to us not because they are fun, but because they set limitations. Soccer wouldn't be soccer if it wasn't composed of two teams of eleven players using only their feet, heads, and torsos to get a ball into a goal; Tetris wouldn't be Tetris without falling pieces in characteristic shapes. Such rules seem needless, arbitrary, and difficult. Yet it is the limitations that make games enjoyable, just like it's the hard things in life that give it meaning. Play is what happens when we accept these limitations, narrow our focus, and, consequently, have fun. Which is also how to live a good life. Manipulating a soccer ball into a goal is no different than treating ordinary circumstances- like grocery shopping, lawn mowing, and making PowerPoints-as sources for meaning and joy. We can "play anything" by filling our days with attention and discipline, devotion and love for the world as it really is, beyond our desires and fears. Ranging from Internet culture to moral philosophy, ancient poetry to modern consumerism, Bogost shows us how today's chaotic world can only be tamed-and enjoyed-when we first impose boundaries on ourselves.
Izzy and friends are excited! The snow is falling fast and they're hoping they'll all be sent home early. But then they hear weird noises in the playground, and find a big footprint in the snow... And that's when they know! There's a YETI in the playground and it's HUNGRY! Laugh-out-loud fun from Blue Peter Award winners Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham. Read more of Izzy's adventures! Baby Aliens Got My Teacher The Spy Who Loved School Dinners My Headteacher Is a Vampire Rat The Demon Dinner Ladies There's a Werewolf in my Tent To Wee or Not to Wee The Phantom Lollipop Man Icarus Was Ridiculous
"Imagination Unleashed" sweeps young readers aged 9-12 into a beyond magic fantasy, spotlighting Sarah, a girl with a curiosity as vast as the universe and an imagination to match. Her discovery of a hidden attic in her grandmother's house unveils a magical library, a canvas for magical dreams and a repository of ancient wisdom. This library is not just a collection of books; it's a portal to worlds unimagined, a place where the power of imagination transforms the mundane into the extraordinary. As Sarah explores this mysterious domain, she's drawn to a book that whisks her away to an enchanted forest, alive with talking animals and mystical beings of the magic world. With every step, she's plunged deeper into an adventure that challenges her wit and creativity, accompanied by a wise-cracking bookworm whose knowledge of the magical realms knows no bounds. The magical library serves as more than just the setting of Sarah's journey; it's a beacon of knowledge, revealing that the true magic lies in the power of imagining. Guided by the guardians of this magical world, Sarah learns that her adventures are part of a grander mission: to protect the enchanted realms from threats that seek to diminish their wonder. Upon returning to reality, Sarah finds that the library's secrets extend far beyond the books on its shelves. Her encounters with the characters from these magical tomes teach her invaluable lessons about empathy, creativity, and the strength of curious little minds. The narrative weaves a rich tapestry of friendship, adventure, and the endless possibilities that lie within the pages of a book. "Imagination Unleashed" is a celebration of the power of imagination and creativity, urging its readers to dream big and embark on their own journeys of discovery. It underscores the importance of knowledge, the joy of exploring curious little minds, and the transformative potential of imagining. Through Sarah's eyes, readers are reminded that every book holds the key to a new adventure, making the magical library a gateway to infinite worlds waiting to be explored. This tale is a tribute to the dreamers, the thinkers, and all who believe in the magic of imagination.
