An anagram is the rearranging of letters of a word to produce a whole new word or phrase using all the letters exactly once.  It’s a play with words.  For some people, like writers, playing with words becomes an obsession.  For one family, it became a passion which led to the creation of a new game called Banannagrams. 

Banannagrams was created and developed by three generations of family members aged 7 to 75 and living in two different countries, the US and the U.K.  The patriarch of the family came up with the name from the saying “The anagram game that will drive you bananas!” 

So, what exactly is Banannagrams?  Similar to the game Scrabble, Banannagrams is played with tiles of letters, but no board.  144 tiles are placed face down in a group called the “BUNCH.”  The game can accommodate 2 -8 players who each take a certain amount of tiles from the BUNCH, keeping them face down.

After each player has taken the required amount of tiles, any player can call “SPLIT” and then the game play begins.  Each player turns over their own tiles and begins putting words together.  Each player plays independently and there is no waiting on turns.  When a player runs out of tiles, she then says “PEEL” and each player takes an additional tile from the BUNCH.  If a player has a tile that he cannot use it can be placed back into the BUNCH by saying “DUMP” but then must take 3 additional tiles.  When there are fewer tiles in the BUNCH than there are players the game is over and the first player to finish using her tiles shouts “BANANNAS” and wins the hand.  The words are checked for spelling and if an unacceptable word is found in the winning hand then that player is given the title of “Rotten Banana” and all his or her tiles are placed back into the BUNCH face down.  Game play will continue and the Rotten Banana is out for the remainder of the hand.

Bananagrams is challenging and engaging for all players and at all levels.  Unlike Scrabble, it can be very rewarding for a 7 year old to play right along with the adult members of the family and have just as much a chance at becoming Top Banana.