'Spot It' and 'Tell Tale' Card Games from Blue Orange Games

In a day and age when portable game systems, iPhones and iPads seem to be all-consuming for kids, it's a wonderful discovery, and frankly a breath of fresh air, to come across some good old-fashioned card games that captivate and delight children and the kid in all of us. Read on for your new fave go-to games that will fit right in your purse.



I have found the ultimate travel and on-the-go entertainment in Blue Orange Games's card game tins. I plan on keeping these games in my diaper bag or purse at all times for waits in long lines, or in the doctor's office, and especially for airline travel.

Tell Tale and Spot It are my new favorite games to play with Miss O. Being a writer myself, and having a daughter with a wild and inspiring imagination, Tell Tale: Take a Journey Into Storyland encourages players of all ages to create stories based upon the pictures on the cards. While there are rules you can follow for play, Miss O and I simply pick out a few favorite pictures and take turns making up stories about what we see, or we shuffle the cards and come up with impromptu tales once we select an unforeseen card.

Spot It! is a guaranteed good time. I've never seen a product on Amazon get hundreds of five-star reviews, but this game does, and that's saying something. As shown on the cards at the top of this post, each card in the deck features a bunch of illustrations, and every card has one picture in common. You split the deck among players, put one card down in the center, and you all have at it "spotting" the likeness on the cards in your hands in comparison to the card in play. Whomever gets rid of all their cards first wins! It takes razor sharp concentration and it is so much fun! Even 4 year-old Miss O loved it and excelled at it, and we had so many giggles as we tried to "spot" the matching pictures.

I would highly recommend these two games to anyone, especially parents with kids in tow. You'll always have entertainment at your fingertips. And of course, I love Blue Orange Games because they plant two trees for every tree they use for the construction of their games.