Review - Notable Novelists Card Game

Notable Novelists of the 20th Century

Web Site:  http://www.notablenovelists.com

Cost:  $10.95

Age:  Elementary and Up

Notable Novelists is a modern and educational version of Go-Fish.  I decided to break it out on vacation at the beach.  We needed a little family time while hanging out and resting in the hotel.  We always enjoyed Go-Fish when the boys were younger, so, why not now?

Everyone was willing to play – yay!  It is just as simple as it sounds – deal the cards, work towards getting matches.  At the end, the most matches wins.  To see the directions – click here.   The cool thing is that instead of matching cartoon-like fish, you are matching novelists with their mini-biography and their works.  Each match has an Author, Bio and Library Card.  

What I liked about it is that we were learning while just playing a game. Some of the authors we didn’t recognize like Nabokov or Cheever until we saw what they had written.  The Bio tidbits offer small insights into the life of the author you otherwise wouldn’t know.  You can see all the authors listed – here.  

We had a lot of fun playing.  “So, Dad, do you have a Nabokov (imagined this name butchered) bio?” followed by a chuckle.  When a match was made, the person getting the match would then read the cards aloud.  This helped us learn and start to remember which author was responsible for which work.

I can see pulling this game out from time to time – we got pretty sneaky with our strategies for figuring out who had which cards to make our matches.  You wouldn’t think a child’s game of go-fish could become an adult strategy game.  ha!

I think, too, I’m going to bring it in to the homeschool co-op English class I teach.  It’ll be a fun game to play at the end of the semester. 

If you’d like to see reviews by other Schoolhouse Review Crew members – click here.

*** Disclaimer:  I received this card game free of charge as a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review.