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5th out of 8 books
—
6 voters
How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself
Remember how to make a spool tank? How to whip apples? What to do with a discarded umbrella? Whether "pennies" comes before or after "spank the baby" in mumbly-peg? And your kid never knew any of these things in the first place, to forget in the second place? Robert Paul Smith remembers, and he has set it down for all to see — these things and many others, like rubber-band...more
Hardcover, 130 pages
Published
February 23rd 2010
by Tin House Books
(first published 1958)
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Feb 26, 2010
Dpbsmith
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Ages 10 to adult
Here are some things you can do following the instructions in this book:
Make a spool tank (a homemade windup toy that creeps forward slowly like an army tank); a "button buzz-saw;" a handkerchief parachute; a harmless handkerchief "blackjack." Make a squeaky noise with two blades of grass. Do cool things with dandelion stems and leaves. Make a little basket out of burrs. Put your name on a pencil. Give a pencil a decorative checkerboard grip. Play Mumbly-Peg with a boy scout knife. Make a brace...more
Make a spool tank (a homemade windup toy that creeps forward slowly like an army tank); a "button buzz-saw;" a handkerchief parachute; a harmless handkerchief "blackjack." Make a squeaky noise with two blades of grass. Do cool things with dandelion stems and leaves. Make a little basket out of burrs. Put your name on a pencil. Give a pencil a decorative checkerboard grip. Play Mumbly-Peg with a boy scout knife. Make a brace...more
If you decide to purchase this book please keep in mind it was published back in 1958. The purpose of the book is to find things that children can do all by themselves with no help or supervision.
The toys that Robert Paul Smith describe are made with materials most careful moms won't let their child look at, much less play with alone. For example, the materials needed for the first toy are an empty spool of thread, a rubber band, 3 matches and a knife.
Hmmm... 3 stars for the concept and becaus...more
The toys that Robert Paul Smith describe are made with materials most careful moms won't let their child look at, much less play with alone. For example, the materials needed for the first toy are an empty spool of thread, a rubber band, 3 matches and a knife.
Hmmm... 3 stars for the concept and becaus...more
As I wrote on Beatrice: "David Mamet was born in 1947. He was eleven years old when Robert Paul Smith’s How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself was published in 1958. I’m not able to get in touch with Mamet to ask him if he read this book, but I am willing to bet folding money that he did, then or shortly after."
How can you not love a kid's book roughly ten percent of which is dedicated to all the intricate levels of mumbly-peg?
How can you not love a kid's book roughly ten percent of which is dedicated to all the intricate levels of mumbly-peg?
I liked the style of writing and the philosophy more than the instructions, but the instructions were clear and most children even now should be able to find most of the buttons & burrs & paper & leather scraps needed for these little projects. Every child should spend time relying on his or her own resources instead of just video games and friends.
I was given this book as a kid and it provided me hours of enjoyment.
Apr 20, 2010
Freder
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Freder by:
my father
Happy happy joy joy! This is one of the best books in the world and I was so glad to learn that it's back in print. I picked up my copy and it is just as wonderful as I remembered. I'm also surprised to see how much of this stuff I actually learned and did and made when I was about eight years old and reading it for the first time.
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I thought there would be more pictures, but it is cool that the ones in there are hand-drawn. And there are some fun things for kids to do. My son will have to do nothing with an adult until he is old enough to read on his own.
Fascinating look into life for children in the 1920s.
Great ideas for any time a child says to you, "I'm bored."
http://newgrandmas.com/11249/newmemor...
Great ideas for any time a child says to you, "I'm bored."
http://newgrandmas.com/11249/newmemor...
This book opens "[i:]f things were as they should be another kid would be telling you how to do these things..." Yep. Learn 'em from another kid. They're boring to read about.
I received this book for my birthday when I was a child. I found it a wonderfully imaginative book with marvellous illustrations by Rold Harris!
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Authored the classic evocation of childhood: 'Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.'
Graduated from Columbia College in 1936, worked as a writer for CBS Radio and wrote four novels: So It Doesn't Whistle (1946); The Journey, (1943); Because of My Love (1946); The Time and the Place (1951).
The classic "battle-of-the-sexes" comedy 'The Tender Trap', a play by Smith and Dobie Gillis creator...more
More about Robert Paul Smith...
Graduated from Columbia College in 1936, worked as a writer for CBS Radio and wrote four novels: So It Doesn't Whistle (1946); The Journey, (1943); Because of My Love (1946); The Time and the Place (1951).
The classic "battle-of-the-sexes" comedy 'The Tender Trap', a play by Smith and Dobie Gillis creator...more
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