Finger Strings

‘The cat’s cradle craze keeps popping up and this is the whole works. We start with a simple flag across our fingers and end up with wearable art. It can be an individual or a group activity - see the Five Person Star! There are even rhymes and stories to tell as you illustrate them in string. There are some scholarly notes which show how string games are part of many different cultures. An excellent ‘cross-generational’ book.’– Carousel Christmas Guide to Children’s Books 2008‘Children today sometimes miss out on traditional pursuits so it is always good to find a book that offers something a little different. This project book, complete with colourful string, is a great resource giving readers the chance to play games, make pictures and act out stories - all using string. Diagrams for over 80 activities are fairly easy to follow, even for an instruction phobic parent!’– The Green Parent, Oct/Nov 2008‘Do you remember playing Cat’s Cradle as a child? A new book - Finger Strings by Michael Taylor - offers step by step instructions for finger string games and comes with two strings. Why not relearn your skills and teach them to your children or grandchildren - or use them as an ice-breaker at a party?’– Woman Alive, October 2008‘These are very clearly described and pictured, and there are examples of simple figures and some quite complicated. Some can be used in the telling of a story and others have a poem accompanying them; there is much potential for use across a wide range from playgroup to adult, and indeed some shapes have been invented by children themselves. The sense of achievement when the desired result is reached is very satisfying! … It can be addictive: back to Jacob’s Ladder …’– Diana Barnes, The School Librarian

Michael Taylor is a teacher at Philpots Manor School in the UK who promotes traditional childhood games of movement and agility for the classroom, playground and gym. As well as string figures he collects and teaches clapping games, finger-games, jump-rope activities, ball-bouncing and bean-bag games. He always carries a string with him, and has been known to share string patterns with strangers on tube trains and aeroplanes. He is the author of Pull the Other One and Now You See It.