Cat's Cradle & Other Fantastic String Figures: Over 20 String Games. [BURST] Includes DVD and 2 Strings Hardcover-spiral – February 2, 2010

I bought this for my 7yr old daughter who has been trying to play string games with any chain or string she can get her hands on. I couldn't remember all the cat's cradle steps, so this book was a wonderful investment. She and I have worked through the entire book in the last 3-4 weeks. And my 5yr son is now playing with the string as well, since he watched us working on it (he loves watching how things work, building things, etc. I guess that's the appeal for him?) We have not watched the DVD, so I can't report on that, but the print directions and photos were (for the most part) easy enough to follow. Their newest challenge is to see how many figures they can make without looking at the directions, or even with eyes closed :) PS - Ours came with one string, not two. Not a big deal, but thought I would mention it.Pair this purchase with  String Games  for more advanced figures, which includes three more progressively longer strings to play with.

My 8 year old son and I have had fun with this book. As others mentioned, ours came with one string (rather than the 2 in the description), but that wasn't a problem for us - a friend had hand knitted us a really cool string - we just really needed the book so we could use our existing string. That being said, it was nice to have two strings while learning as I could use one and do the new figure at the same time as my son. I had to help him several of the patterns...it took me a few times, going back and forth between the words and the pictures, but we eventually got it.

My granddaughter was so disappointed when it arrived without the strings and the dvd. We returned it.

As others have stated, it does NOT come with 2 strings as stated in the description. The book is alittle advanced for my 8 year old, but the DVD has a great slow tutorial for cat's cradle, I'm sure soon enough she will be able to advance to the more complex games. I'm disappointed with the string, when I was young it had alittle stretch to it, this one does not at all. Overall I give it an 8 out of 10.

The book is very informative even though the demonstrating pictures are dark and not easy to see. The biggest problem is that there were no strings to use. Granted this a used book and, I guess, I should not be surprised - just very disappointed.

My daughter was excited to receive this book. The instructions are good but the coloring/lighting in the pictures are not distinctive enough, a little hard to see. The string is all right but my daughter enjoys doing the string games with the stretchy chinese jump rope rather then the string provided here.

A wonderful little book to share with your grandchildren of a forgotten art. Time spent creating instead of playing an electronic game.

The whole reason I chose this one over the others, was because it stated it came with 2 strings. false advertising! it only came with one string. I had wanted to teach my daughters to do this. It's too hard for the younger kids to follow along with the book or DVD and even harder if I can't do it alongside them to show them. Otherwise, the book was in good condition. Just peeved that I now have to order a separate string. I wish I had read the reviews first to see this.