Bananagrams, Appletters, Pairs in Pears - FUN Word Games for Kids BUT Grown-ups love them too!

Bananagrams, Appleletters and Pairs in Pears are all fun word games invented by Abraham Nathanson and his family of Narragansett, Rhode Island. Bananagrams came first and was introduced to the public in January 2006 at the London Toy Fair and everyone went bananas. Bananagrams became a huge hit and has won numerous awards, including Game of the Year 2009, for its innovation, popularity among consumers, and educational value.

With the tremendous success of Bananagrams, the Nathanson and his family, upon requests received from teachers and parents, came up with two more fun fruity word games--Appleletters and Pairs in Pears.

Bananagrams, Appleletters and Pairs in Pears each comes in a fruit-shaped cloth pouch--Bananagrams in a banana-shaped pouch, Appleletters in an apple-shaped pouch and guess which one came in a pear-shaped pouch?

Bananagrams, Appletters, Pairs in Pears are FUN word games for kids BUT grown-ups love them too!

Bananagrams

The Bananagrams game consists of 144 lettered tiles that are placed face down on the playing surface. For games of 2-4 people, each player takes 21 letters from the bunch, keeping them face down. For 5-6 players, 15 letters are taken. For 7-8 (or more) players, 11 letters are taken.

Any one of the Bananagrams players can call "SPLIT" (you know, as in banana-split), and all players turn over their tiles. Each player begins arranging the letters to form words. In Bananagrams, players do not take turns, but play independently of each other and at the same time.

During the Bananagrams hand, when a player has none of his or her original letters left, that player says "PEEL" (you know, as in banana peel) and takes a tile from the bunch. At this point ALL OF THE OTHER PLAYERS MUST ALSO TAKE A TILE FROM THE BUNCH and add it to their collection of letters.

At any time, if any Bananagrams player has a tile that he or she cannot use during the hand, that player can put back the tile face down to the center of the Bunch, but MUST TAKE THREE LETTERS IN RETURN. The player must declare this action to the other players by saying "DUMP". This exchange does not affect the other players.

Bananagrams play continues until there are fewer tiles in the BUNCH than there are players. The first player with no remaining letters shouts "BANANAS" and is the winner of that hand. The other Bananagrams players may now inspect the winning hand for misspelled or incorrect words. Proper nouns are not acceptable. Any available dictionary may be used. If all words are acceptable, that player is the WINNER OF THAT HAND. If any word in the "winning" hand is found to be unacceptable, that Bananagrams player becomes the “Rotten Banana” and is OUT OF THAT HAND, and must return his or her letters, face down to the center bunch and the game now resumes for the remaining players.

Bananagrams is so much fun for kids but grown-ups love it too!

With everyone going bananas with Bananagrams, out came another fruity word game from the makers of Bananagrams--Appletters. Appletters is played similar to the old Scrabble that's gathering dust somewhere around the house.

Appleletters has 110 letter tiles for players to place face down in the middle and from which they choose their tiles. Then, each player stands the tiles up so that the other players cannot see the letters, and the exciting word play begins!

The first player of the Appletters game makes a word using the letter tiles and places it in the middle of the table. The next player then can add to either the first or last letter of the word creating a zigzag pattern.

As the Appletters play continues, and a player cannot make a word, he or she has to choose THREE tiles from the pile and say "PICK AND PASS"."

Play of the Appletters game continues until a player runs out of his or her tiles, making that player the winner! The winner then exclaims "HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLIES!"

Appletters is also designed to be three games in one--with Applescore and Appleturnover as additional (and a little more difficult) games.

Appletters game is fun word game for 2 to 6 players. The whole family will love it.

Pairs in Pears is another fruity word game from the makers of Bananagrams and Appletters. Pairs in Pears consists of 104 plastic letter tiles inside a cloth pear-shaped pouch.

The Pairs in Pears game involves making pairs of intersecting words that consist of tiles of all the same pattern. One word is up or down and the other is left or right, and they share a vowel or consonant. The words must be at least three letters. The winner is the first player who makes a certain number of points.

Pairs in Pears has other variations like Pairpoints whichincludes a more elaborate scoring scheme (1 point for non-pattern-matching words, 2 points for matching words, 5 points for finishing first).

The large, ivory-like tiles show capital letters in four designs: solid, outline, lines and dots. The different patterns function like different suits of cards. As there are four suits, each containing a complete alphabet, there are a total of 104 tiles. Just like in a deck of cards, each tile is unique and adds an interesting new dimension to play with.

While in Bananagrams and Appletters, the first to use up all of your letters wins, in Pairs in Pears challenges players with racing to create the most word pairs.

Pairs in Pears is another winning fruity word game from the makers of Bananagrams and Appletters. Pairs in Pears is a game for two to four players.

Pairs in Pears is challenging, silly and addictive. But most of all, fun for the kids and the whole family.

Bananagrams, Appletters, Pairs in Pears are FUN word games for kids BUT grown-ups love them too!