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Boardman youth play global games
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The first game of July 19's "Global Games" story time at the Boardman library was Pilolo, a finding game from Ghana. Librarian John Yingling (right) hid blue and and red cards around the facility's activity room. After all the cards were found, a group of story time guests helped Yingling do the final count of cards to announce a winner.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Librarian John Yingling (left) played the game Ampe, from Ghana, with the guests of his "Global Games" story time. Ampe is Ghana's version of follow the leader, where the players had to copy what he was doing.
By SARAH FOOR
When guests at Boardman’s July 18 “Global Games” storytime visited the facility without their passport in tow, the librarians there said, “no problem!”
The traveling that a group of summer readers completed that day didn’t require any long flights or car rides, just a little imagination and a playful attitude.
“We like to play global games mostly because they’re a lot of fun,” host John Yingling told his crowd of readers.
“But, I also think it teaches you how similar people are around the world. If you play a game of tag in your backyard, chances are there are kids in other countries who have their own version of the same game. Kids everywhere play,” Yingling noted.
During his impromptu tour around the world, Yingling and his guests traveled to Ghana, Austrailia, Poland, France, Greece, and Korea, all through play.
Highlights included Ampe, from Ghana, which is the country’s own version of follow the leader. Australia’s Hospital Tag game asked guests to feign injury on the spot of their last tag, and to work without that body part until they get tapped again.
Although the ball-and-cup game has versions in many different countries, Yingling introduced France’s version, Bilboquet. After learning the basics, the guests were offered the chance to make their own ball-and-cup game with a styrofoam cup, string and ping-pong ball.
Guest Breana Atkinson tried many times to land the ball in the cup during the deceptively simple-looking game. After many attempts, her luck started to improve.
“It’s harder than it looks, but practice makes perfect,” she said. “I’ll be practicing with the one I made today until I get it every time.”