Eenie meenie miny moe

Mika Wickström 2010: Entten tentten
Illustrated by Mervi Lindman


A book of different games to play outdoor, indoors. These games have been played in Finland. My mother has told me that they played church rat when she was a child, we played it and now my boys play it.

This book also has some "newer" games like larping, parkour and footsack. These did not exist when I was a child, at least not in the country side. 

Some of the games need more than five players for it to be fun. But the broken telephone can be played by two. At least my husband and I practice it regularly: one says something and the other hears something totally different. Not fun. But when there are ten sitting in a row and one whispers something and the message gets distorted until it reaches the end. That is kind of funny.

Church rat

The name of the book is children's rhyme, which is gibberish.  I thought it came from Swedish, but now Google tells me it comes from German: Entel, tentel. Imagine that!

Broken telephone