A welcoming and helpful book that is refreshingly easy to use. It is a book of games AT teachers can draw on for teaching small and large groups and individuals. It does what the authors set out to do and in a way which provides clarity and simplicity for the reader. They also lighten our work as AT teacher or student by providing ideas and methods for bringing fun and enjoyment to the teaching and learning of the Technique. A useful, handy and playful resource.

Pretty much all AT teachers would be familiar with games as part of their teacher training. The rationale and context for working with games, and balancing teaching between group and individual sessions, is in the book’s Forward and Introduction. This references the positives to working in groups, with games as tools not just for learning content but also building up the social element to group work. This makes the book invaluable for teachers new to groups. It is also a relevant reference for the experienced group teacher. Although many of the games are recognisable and ones I have come across before, it is very useful to have them together in one place, and there is enough that is new or interestingly tweaked to make it worthwhile. Unsurprisingly the book is dedicated to all teachers who work with groups, or are planning to start.

The underlying message is that games are important. We all know that we learn better when we are enjoying ourselves. This book of 100 games is about learning through play. Play is to engage in activity for enjoyment. It implies creativity and unexpectedness, apt for enabling change. Games are a form of structuring that play, a guided experimentation with added fun. As the authors point out in their Introduction ‘[e]xperiencing something in the context of a game or activity can add an element of fun to a learning process, and this can take it out of the ‘right/wrong’ paradigm and into a learning experience less conditioned by habitual patterns of use.’ p.15

Part of the enjoyment is to have a resource that is easy to use. The book is very accessible. The text is well laid out and simply written. It is a good example of a resource manual for teachers, where you can easily find and digest what you need. The ideas are presented in a spacious way, and are very well complemented by the work of the Melbourne artist Isobel Knowles whose quirky illustrations add an additional strand of playful thinking throughout the book.

The games are clearly teaching tools, they are thinking in activity. The authors have limited the danger of form over content in their descriptions. Each game or activity is described in a few paragraphs, the ‘recipe’ then includes the AT ingredients - the ‘Key Ideas’ behind the game, followed by a list of questions the teacher can use with the group to tease out the learning points related to the game. These game specific questions complement generic questions that can be ‘asked’ of all the games. The use of key ideas and questions helps give tools for people think with and ensures the game is not a purely mechanical doing activity but one that involves thought.

The wealth of games in this book that cover many purposes and varied pace. To help structure the book the authors have organised sections on games for introductory sessions, and those for body mapping, walking, observation, inhibition, directing, imagination, breathing, voice and semi-supine. Many are useful for more than one learning context. To complement this publication the authors have opened up a Facebook page on “For the love of games”, for questions and with a couple of videos of the most tricky games.

The authors encourage and hope for enjoyment in ‘making the games your own’. It is a small step then to use the book as a stimulus for more that that, to encourage confidence and creativity for ‘making your own games.’ If you want to get inspiration as to activities that you can do with your individual and group lessons, if you want to make your lessons more enjoyable and interactive, with a smile, then this book is for you.