Kanoodle –
A totally fun game to keep your brain occupied – helps improve visual
perception and spacial abilities with its 2D and 3D puzzles.
The
game comes in a black case where all the ‘noodles’ (linked spheres in
different shapes) are packed together. The case is also the playing
area. The included booklet has 100 puzzles of various levels. Use the
diagrams in the booklet to place some of the noodles as shown n the
diagrams and then try to fill in the empty/remaining spaces with the
remaining noodles.The initial puzzles for both 2D and 3D are simple and
get more complex as you move on. The 2D puzzles till level 4 can be
easily done by younger kids.
Pros:

• Compact, easy to carry
• Perfect for travel to avoid ‘Are-we-there-yet?’ questions as well as for waits in waiting rooms for you or the kids. 
• Improves visual/spacial perception
• Kids of all ages (even adults) can enjoy this
• Great to gift

Cons:

• Many of the puzzles are easily solved by older kids/adults
• Once solved, may not present a challenge

Rating: B+
Ages: 4+ (Manufacturer age – 7+)

Rory’s Story Cubes –
This game can provide hours of fun while engaging your imagination.
Perfect to come up with story ideas if you are ever facing a writer’s
block. A family favorite that all of us play at all odd hours of the
day. This game is simply put, genius!

There are nine six-sided die with detailed images on each side.
The concept is simple – roll the die and make up a story.The images
range from smiley faces to a tepee and even a dice!! I play the game
with my nine year old son and six year old daughter – and the result is –
amazing stories and I am left amazed at how much my kids know and at
their imagination! My children come up with new rules and ways to play
the game each time which makes it all the more fun and interesting.

The box includes a few different ways to play this game and you can find many more ways to play it online at the Story Cubes site.

This can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.
Pros:

• Compact, easy to carry
• Perfect for travel and for waiting room blues; can be played just about anywhere
• Kids of all ages (even adults) can enjoy this
• Can be used as a conversation-starter/ice-breaker at parties for kids and adults
• Can help writers get over writer’s block
• Come up with wonderful stories! 
• Wonderful family game
• Improves vocabulary, creative thinking, imagination, perception, and more!
• Great to gift

 Cons:

•  None

Note: There is also an app available to play on the
iPhone/iPod Touch now. And a set of Action cubes that can be used with
this to enhance the experience.

Rating: A+
Ages: 4+ (Manufacturer recommended age – 8+)

Friday
Flash 55
My 55 today is the story the kids and I came up with this set of Rory’s cubes (image and story below)

Book
Beginnings:
 “I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.”
from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
If
the reviews across blogland had not made me add this book to my TBR and
caught my attention, these first lines would certainly have. Now I know
I will be hooked.

Friday
56
‘He closed the laptop, a sure sign I was about to receive his full attention. “I can see you’re disappointed.”’
from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (p 56)

 Book Blurb : 
Lisa
Ricard Claro hosts this meme on her blog. She posts a photo each week
and our task – imagine this is a book cover and come with a blurb for
this book in 150 words or less. Entice your readers to buy the book with
your blurb.
This week’s book cover is by writer-photographer-blogger Kathy Matthews.

Cook wanted tuna, and fresh too. Who knew he would be sent off on a tuna
hunting expedition the moment he arrived home after years? So here he was, at
the pier which held fond memories. As he neared the sign that said ‘Fresh
Tuna’, the name on the boat caught his attention – ‘Chelsea Rose’, it said and
he remembered. (Did Cook know he would end up here?)
Adam was young, ambitious and not wanting to get handed over a tuna empire
from a potential future father-in-law, so he had fled.
Chelsea was in love, with her best friend Adam, but also loved her father –
the ‘Tuna emperor’ of the small town of Halibut, so she stayed.
Now Adam was back – Why? Only he can answer it and only to Chelsea.
Can they submerge the past and sail forward?  (142)