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Sleeping Queens Review by Maggi Beardsley

Gamewright
617-924-6006
70 Bridge Street
Newton, MA 02458
http://www.gamewright.com/

Sleeping Queens is the coolest card game of the year! Miranda Evarts was 6 years old when she created this card game. She must have a great imagination. There are all sorts of queens: the Rose Queen, the Queen of Pancakes, the Dog Queen, the Rainbow Queen, and so many more.

This card game is for ages 8 and up and is for two to five players. The object is to be the first player to collect five queens or have 40-50 points, depending on the number of players. There are several different kinds of cards: kings, queens, knights, dragons, sleeping potion, wands, jesters, and numbered cards. The kings awaken the queens, the knights steal the queens, but the dragons can stop the knights. The sleeping potion puts your opponent's queen to sleep, but a wand can defend you from the sleeping potion. You can play the number cards individually, or you can create an addition problem and play three cards.

Math inside of a fun game! Gamewright states that this game will help "develop memory, strategy, and elementary arithmetic skills," and it does. We like unique card games in our house. Sleeping Queens engaged all members of our family, aged 5 to 45. You have to be quick, which is a skill that we don't practice enough in our homeschool.

Jimmy Pickering does an excellent job of drawing the characters. The Pancake Queen is dressed in a beautiful ball dress with pancakes, butter, and syrup on her hips and on top of her hair. Sleeping Queens engages so much of the student.

I have to admit this card game was so exciting that my children, aged 9, 8 and 5, opened up the box, read the instructions, and started playing before I had a chance to do it. The first time I played I had a difficult time understanding all of the rules. After a few times playing with my 5-year-old, however, I was able to play with the entire family. I can understand that some families might not choose this card game because of the sleeping potion and the wand. You could remove these cards and still have an exciting game.

Sleeping Queens is our card game of the year. It will be the game that we gift this year too. It is a fun game with beautifully illustrated cards that allow us to practice our speedy strategy and our arithmetic facts. Thank you, Evarts family, for designing such an exciting family game.

Product Review by Maggi Beardsley, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February 2010

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