Saturday, January 30, 2010

You've Been Sentenced Game Giveaway

You've Been SentencedThe review for this week is a strange but lovely coincidence. I was in our local toy store checking out new games and I noticed that the word game You've Been Sentenced was listed as a staff pick (and I happen to trust their staff very much). I was intrigued by the rave reviews so when the company approached me about trying out the game I was amazed at their fabulous timing and their mad ESP powers.

I was sent us a complimentary copy of You've Been Sentenced (along with their Twisted Fish card game) to check out and the verdict? Great game. Players use five-sided cards to build silly sentences for points such as "Abraham Lincoln punched the peppers" or "She threw the exploding lemon through the mattress."

I had to help our 7 year-old at first but then she got it and was right there with the rest of us. The biggest thing is that when you first begin the temptation is to try and use every card in your hand in one sentence and when you try to do that you end up with a lot of ungrammatically correct sentences followed by a lot of heated arguing and an end to family unity--all over whose sentence is legit and whose is not. We had to patiently explain that despite the desire to win at all costs and the satisfaction of pounding one's brother into the ground it is actually better strategy to concentrate on making a true sentence rather than one with seventeen illogical modifiers.

You've Been SentencedSo once we got that down it was smooth. I like how it's a game that gets the kids learning about grammar without knowing it and the kids liked the silly factor. The basic game is fun and educational--you get to explain how sentences use that basic subject-verb-object structure--but it gets even better when you add the expansion decks that are filled with words around a unique theme: sci-fi, pop culture, food, sports and even a deck with Reader's Digest super words.

So you can get cards with "Darth Vader," "George Bush," "tortilla" or "dug out" which makes for even better sentences such as "Darth Vader smacked George Bush with a tortilla behind the dug out."

I guess the staff at our Over the Rainbow Toys know their games pretty well because I'd completely agree with their five-star rating. And as a beautiful conclusion to this story the good folks at McNeill Designs are offering five You've Been Sentenced games, each with a set of theme decks to five winners this weekend. You're going to love this!

* And the Twisted Fish game? Also great. It's a fun take on the classic Go Fish that you'll love. Go fish!

Here's how to win:

Before 12 am Monday morning go to the giveaway entry form on this page and enter your name and email. I will pick one of the names at random, contact the winner via their email and publish the winner's first name and home town in next Tuesday's post. See the bottom of the entry form for more details.

This giveaway is open to all readers with a U.S. address. Good luck!

16 comments:

Don McNeill said...

Dear Michelle,

Thank you!

When I started to promote my game through the review/giveaway/blogosphere I made a leap of faith that I knew what I had in a great game - I just needed to prove it to the world.

Every blog that has written a review - I became a follower.

I did not know about my attraction and attention shift in my daily life that would occur. By subscribing to so many blogs I became hooked! I made your garlic fries!

I now find myself following you and many other great writers who give me an insight into the lives of the most influential people in the world -MOMS!

My mom Doris Marjorie Snyder McNeill is 83 this year and I still listen to her!

This has been a most joyous occaision to see the incredible comments made about my 4th child - the game of YBS. I cannot thank you enough for such a heartfelt review.

I hope your winners have as much fun as you did. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have you and your family play/evaluate/comment on your experience.

What are you cooking next week? Susan is a very important and busy woman and I need to keep her and my three children happy with good food.

Thank you again.

branda50 said...

This sounds like a good game for third graders learning sentence structure?..Maybe I'll surprise my grandson's teacher with one..Or I could win one for her..
Cool to have the maker of the game write on your blog Michelle...

Patricia L said...

This sounds like something my 2 older kids would LOVE. My daughter still laughs about the time she said that Abraham Lincoln was Cuddly in Apples to Apples.

Jen said...

As the economy has continued to blow raspberries at us, I've been getting board games for us to play. Much cheaper than going out and a whole lot more fun. I.Must.Find.This.Game. My boys would love it, and learning as well. Thanks so much for the recommendation, hope I win. If not, I'll still be searching it out. Thanks!

Janelle said...

Oh, this looks like so much fun! It really appeals to the nerd in me, too.

MaryAZ said...

Sounds like a fun game! Great blog...Just found your blog through thediaperdiaries.

Allie in Tok said...

Whether I win or not, I'm showing this post to the Special Ed Director for our school district, who happens to be my boss. We are trying to get the kids to write grammatically correct paragraphs and this might be a fun way to get them to understand sentance structure. :-) Thanks for the heads up!

Alison said...

I would LOVE to win this since I am an English teacher (who will hopefully have her own classroom again next year!)

Unknown said...

Looks like a great game and they may not even realize they are learning. Hope I win!

Serena said...

This sounds like so much fun!

justicecw said...

Looks great! Fun and learning at the same time. :)

SuperMom said...

Sounds great! We are big big huge fans of games!
Please enter me!

ladyverlina AT yahoo DOT com

Mirien said...

Even if I don't win, I'll put that on my list of games to buy in the future. I trust your reviews!

jillykat07 said...

This game sounds like SOOOOO much fun!

Peggy said...

I love having the kids play games and learn .If you tell them to study ,they look at you like you are from another planet. So it better to tell them to go play a game!!
Thanks
matternu@gmail.com

Michelle (The Beartwinsmom) said...

Hi Michelle- long time, no see. :-) I am bummed I missed this giveaway, but happy to see this review. I think my twins would love this game. I know I would.

It's so nice to see you again, and it's SUPER nice to see you on Twitter.

Love and hugs, Michelle