Writing doesn’t have to be a long drawn out daily chore. Making learning fun is a simple as playing a game. The Writes of Passage game is perfect for just that. Ignite a passion for creative writing with your middle school students.

This game is ideal for six to eight players to hone in on their creative expressions by crafting creative stories from three categories of game play cards. A story sheet tablet is included for writing your stories down. The cards included in the set are:

Setting ~ 100 setting cards that have three places listed. Places range from a phone booth to a Big Top circus tent.

Genre ~ 25 genre cards ranging from action, courtroom drama, science fiction, myth/legend, western, and soap opera. Each card gives three to four examples of popular genres that most young adults would be familiar with. For example, for Action they give the examples of The Bourne Identity and The Matrix. The Action and Western cards are duplicated within the twenty-five-card set.

Character ~ 50 characters cards with hand drawn images of a cast of characters ranging from an Egyptian Pharaoh, flight attendant, to a girl playing the cello.

Setting up the game is easy to do. The teacher acts as the publisher and seats all the authors in a circle. Each author receives a sheet of the story paper and will need a clipboard or something hard to write atop of. The publisher decides how long each writing period should last until the story is passed to the left and to the next author.

Since Writes of Passage is not a game of competition, there are no clear winners or losers. The main purpose of the game is for each group of six to eight players, or authors, to craft as many stories as they can. Each player should have the opportunity to contribute to the stories. As an author, you write part of a story for several minutes and then pass that story to the next author and so forth until everyone has had a chance to contribute.

We played this game as a family of mom, dad, and had our three older girls. Yes, it was less than the recommended number of players, so we improvised by taking turns teaming up with our three youngest children. My eleven-year-old was capable of writing her part of the story, she just needed a little extra time.

Overall, we thought this was a great family game that really made us put our thinking caps on, yet it didn’t seem like work because writing creative stories was so much fun! I appreciate the details of each of the cards. Each one was able to spark our imaginations and bring out the creativity in us all. Do I think you should check this game out? Absolutely! For just $24.95 you can have this gem of a game in our house and start your creative juices flowing.

-Product review by Jacquelin Caffey, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2017