Games & Activities

Get your family's brains going with 57 more creative calisthenics for the mind

In China, for centuries it has been acknowledged that early childhood training supports lifelong intellectual growth. For generations, parents have taught their children ""brain games""--delightful amusements that challenge the intellects of young people while appealing to their senses of fun and play. While growing up in China, Baifang learned scores of such games that both challenged and intrigued her. Now she shares 57 new stick-puzzle, number, and shape games for children and parents everywhere to share and enjoy. A terrific way to stimulate parent-child interaction, these quick and challenging puzzles and brain teasers enhance creative capacity and logic, fostering problem-solving skills and mathematical awareness.

Baifang came to the United States from China in 1977 and earned a degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. Since then, she has worked on various media and cultural exchange programs with China. She is also the author of Chinese Brain Twisters.

Get your family's brains going with 57 more creative calisthenics for the mind

In China, for centuries it has been acknowledged that early childhood training supports lifelong intellectual growth. For generations, parents have taught their children ""brain games""--delightful amusements that challenge the intellects of young people while appealing to their senses of fun and play. While growing up in China, Baifang learned scores of such games that both challenged and intrigued her. Now she shares 57 new stick-puzzle, number, and shape games for children and parents everywhere to share and enjoy. A terrific way to stimulate parent-child interaction, these quick and challenging puzzles and brain teasers enhance creative capacity and logic, fostering problem-solving skills and mathematical awareness.

Baifang came to the United States from China in 1977 and earned a degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. Since then, she has worked on various media and cultural exchange programs with China. She is also the author of Chinese Brain Twisters.

Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked.

• Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster
• Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors
• Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous ""Hot Coffee"" sex mini-game incident, and more

Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it, or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation, you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

Learn how to take the ""tease"" out of brainteasers, and increase your puzzle IQ with this eye-opening guide to solving puzzles. Revealing the basic principles and strategies of cracking logic problems, it shows you, step-by-step, how to solve ten of the most common types of puzzles, from basic deduction conundrums to more complex mathematical bafflers. Packed with practice puzzles and offering hours of amusement and mental challenge, Increase Your Puzzle IQ gives you the know-how you need to decipher even the most puzzling of puzzles.

Why are 1997 dollar bills worth more than 1980 dollar bills?

In a box there are 20 balls, 10 white and 10 black. With a blindfold on, what is the least number you must draw out in order to get a pair of balls that matches?

Which clock keeps the best time? The clock that loses a minute a day or one that doesn't run at all?

I have two current U.S. coins in my hand. The two coins add up to 15?. One of the coins is not a nickel. What two coins do I have?

How much dirt is there in a hole that is 1 foot wide by 1 foot long by 1 foot deep?

Learn how to take the ""tease"" out of brainteasers, and increase your puzzle IQ with this eye-opening guide to solving puzzles. Revealing the basic principles and strategies of cracking logic problems, it shows you, step-by-step, how to solve ten of the most common types of puzzles, from basic deduction conundrums to more complex mathematical bafflers. Packed with practice puzzles and offering hours of amusement and mental challenge, Increase Your Puzzle IQ gives you the know-how you need to decipher even the most puzzling of puzzles.

Why are 1997 dollar bills worth more than 1980 dollar bills?

In a box there are 20 balls, 10 white and 10 black. With a blindfold on, what is the least number you must draw out in order to get a pair of balls that matches?

Which clock keeps the best time? The clock that loses a minute a day or one that doesn't run at all?

I have two current U.S. coins in my hand. The two coins add up to 15?. One of the coins is not a nickel. What two coins do I have?

How much dirt is there in a hole that is 1 foot wide by 1 foot long by 1 foot deep?