All Around the World: Sports and Games


Book Description

"8 huge fold-out scenes with over 300 reusable stickers."




Weird Sports and Wacky Games around the World


Book Description

With hundreds of books dedicated to conventional sports and activities, this encyclopedia on the weirdest and wackiest games offers a fresh and entertaining read for any audience. Weird Sports and Wacky Games around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbing focuses on what many would consider abnormal activities from across the globe. Spanning subjects that include individual games, team sports, games for men and women, and contests involving animal competitors, there is something for every reader. Whether researching a particular country or region's traditions or wanting an interesting read for pleasure, this book offers an array of uses and benefits. Though the book focuses on games and sporting activities, the examination of these topics gives readers insight into unfamiliar places and peoples through their recreation—an essential part of the human experience that occurs in all cultures. Such activities are not only embedded in everyday life but also indelibly interconnected with social customs, war, politics, commerce, education, and national identity, making the whimsical topic of the book an appealing gateway to insightful, highly relevant information.




Games People Played


Book Description

"Games People Played is, surprisingly, the first global history of sport. Wray Vamplew assesses how sports have developed and diffused across continents and centuries, exploring topics such as emotion, discrimination and conviviality; politics, nationalism and protest; and how economics has turned sport into a huge consumer industry. Sport is sociable, charitable and health-giving, but this book also examines its dark side: its impact on the environment, players' use of performance-enhancing drugs and the repercussions of match fixing. Covering everything from curling to baseball, boxing to motor racing, Games People Played will appeal to anyone who plays, watches and enjoys sport."--Publisher's description




All Around the World


Book Description

All Around the World: Animal Kingdom is a charmingly illustrated journey of discovery through different environments, including the ocean, forest, jungle, desert, and Arctic. Each is shown in a giant fold-out panorama, ready to be populated with the four hundred reusable animal stickers that bring the landscapes to life. Children will love Géraldine Cosneau's quirky illustrations and have fun deciding which animals belong in each panorama. On the reverse side of the panoramas are large outline pictures of animals to complete. When finished, the panoramas can be detached and hung on the wall or left in the book to be used again. With eight large fold-out scenes and hundreds of charming reusable stickers, this book lets young children discover a whole new world of adventure and fun and make it their very own.




Dictionary of Sports and Games Terminology


Book Description

The specialized jargon of some sports can be quite esoteric. Non-Americans, for example, are likely puzzled by baseball terms such as bunt, cut-off man, and safety squeeze, while the non-British may pause over cricket's Chinaman, doosra, golden duck, off-break, popping crease, and yorker. This new dictionary gives the definitions of more than 8,000 terms used in sports and games from around the world, including mainstream sports like basketball and billiards alongside the more obscure netball and snooker. Entries cover sports equipment, strategies, venues, qualifying categories, awards, and administrative bodies, while a comprehensive system of cross-references offers assistance and clarification when needed. An appendix lists standard abbreviations of sports ruling bodies and administrative organizations.




Traditional Sports and Games in the Contemporary World


Book Description

This book presents a captivating story about traditional sports and games in the current world. It moves from Denmark to the Basque Country and to Scotland, exploring traditional games in their local contexts. It highlights the numerous, practical functions of traditional games, showing that these games are very valuable, necessary, and actually fit the needs of our times! It offers an original perspective on traditional sports and games, providing captivating stories from personal trips to these countries and numerous practical descriptions and inspirational ideas about how to use traditional games in practice.




Weird Sports and Wacky Games around the World


Book Description

With hundreds of books dedicated to conventional sports and activities, this encyclopedia on the weirdest and wackiest games offers a fresh and entertaining read for any audience. Weird Sports and Wacky Games around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbing focuses on what many would consider abnormal activities from across the globe. Spanning subjects that include individual games, team sports, games for men and women, and contests involving animal competitors, there is something for every reader. Whether researching a particular country or region's traditions or wanting an interesting read for pleasure, this book offers an array of uses and benefits. Though the book focuses on games and sporting activities, the examination of these topics gives readers insight into unfamiliar places and peoples through their recreation—an essential part of the human experience that occurs in all cultures. Such activities are not only embedded in everyday life but also indelibly interconnected with social customs, war, politics, commerce, education, and national identity, making the whimsical topic of the book an appealing gateway to insightful, highly relevant information.




Sports and Games of the Ancients


Book Description

Based on reports from 19th century explorers, museum artifacts, and other historical documents, the rules, equipment, and diagrams as they are currently understood are provided here for readers, along with suggestions for adapting these sports and games for modern times. Sports enthusiasts and students will find this volume a valuable resource for discovering the earliest beginnings of our modern-day sports. Divided according to seven geopolitical regions of the world, Sports and Games of the Ancients describes the sports, games, and play of our earliest ancestors. Their need for survival in often hostile conditions enable them to develop skills such as long distance running or archery, and these skills were then practiced in friendly competitions that evolved into our modern-day marathons and Olympic events. Covering such games as Africa's mancala and senet, the martial arts of Asia, the log run and Tejo of Latin America, and the boomerang and surfing of Oceania, this volume provides a solid picture of the sports and games of our ancient ancestors.




The World's Game


Book Description

Known as much for the emotional outbursts and violence of its fans as for its own stars, soccer (or football, as it is known outside the United States) is a global game. Its international controlling body, FIFA, boasts more members than the United Nations. Bill Murray traces the growth of what during pre-industrial times was called "the simplest game" through its codification in the nineteenth century to the 1994 World Cup, held for the first time in the United States. Murray weaves the sport's growth into the culture and politics of the countries where it has been taken up, analyzing its reputation as a game that has seen more riots and on-field brawls than all other types of football combined. He vividly illustrates how soccer has become the world's most popular sport, one that has resisted the interference of politicians, dictators, and profiteers and - more recently - the demands of television, through which it has spread to virtually every corner of the globe. The World's Game will be entertaining and enlightening to anyone from the most avid, knowledgeable fan to those who merely hope to learn a little about the sport.




Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries


Book Description

Many of the sports and games played around the world today have their roots in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their history, detailed in Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries, provides us with an insight into the life and times of cultures across the globe. The dominance of Britain as a world power during this time had a particularly powerful effect in sports, as it organized many Western sports with specific rules, and repressed the traditional sports and games of regions it colonized such as Africa. Rules and equipment for all of the sports and games of this time period, along with diagrams, are included. The book is divided into seven geopolitical regions: Africa, Asia (including the Middle East), British Isles, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania. Each region opens with an essay placing sports and games from that area in their political and cultural context. Following the essay are entries on each individual sport. After a description of the history of the sport, detailed instructions for playing the 18th or 19th century version of the sport follow. A list of equipment is provided, and any alternate rules or variations of the game are also given. As part of the Sports and Games Through History series, this volume will appeal to students as well as sports, history, and cultural enthusiasts of all ages.