The queens, the kings, and the numbers are all fun. Melody says, 'I like the game because of the queens and the cards. So instead of me reviewing it, we're going to take comments from my five-year old daughter, who is obviously the target of such a game. The rules say that she thought up the game when unable to sleep one night, and then her family helped her develop it. And this is because she is a six-year old girl, and I don't think any Age of Steam is to be expected here. For example, if you hold a 4, 6 and 10, you may put all three down stating 4+6=10 (or 10-4=6) and then draw three new cards to your hand.I tread with a very careful step to review Sleeping Queens (Gamewright,2005 - Miranda Evarts), simply because of the designer.

If you can make a sum, you can play as many cards as you wish to make a sum.

If you hold doubles of the same number value, you may play both and draw 2 more cards.

If you have number cards in your hand, you may play a single number and draw a new card.Whoever the number lands on may pick up a queen. For example, if it is a 4 and you are playing with yourself and 2 others, you would say '1' to yourself, '2' to the next person, '3' to the next person, and then '4' back to yourself. If if is a number card, you count out the number of points around the players starting with yourself. If it is a picture card, you keep this for your next turn. If you play a jester, you may pick up one card.If you play a sleeping potion, you may return someone else's queen face down back to the middle of the table where it becomes available for anyone else to take in the future - unless the person has a wand in their hand which deflects the sleeping potion.If you play a knight, you may steal someone else's queen - unless they have a dragon in their hand which prevents the queen being stolen.If you play a king, you can wake up a queen.Each queen has a different points value, and some have other special attributes. The 12 different queens start the game placed face-down on the table.Each player is dealt 5 playing cards and must ensure they have 5 cards in their hand throughout the game, so every time you put down a card you pick another one up.The aim of the game is to 'wake up' all the Sleeping Queens, and the player with the most points once the queens have all been woken up is the winner. The instructions state that it's for Ages 8 and up but Mylo at age nearly 4 is happily understanding the concepts and even winning his own fair share of games. A sign of a great game for me is when kids are playing it over and over every day. And boy has it been played and played and played and played and then played some more.

Sleeping queens game