What a rich array of pleasures in this book! Warren Fahey is both historian and folklorist, and the many threads of the play lives of Australian children – physical, verbal and musical – are interwoven here with the daily circumstances of their lives from convict transportation to the present. Adults will rediscover the joys of their young years, children will enlarge their play repertoire. A family treasure.

(Dr) June Factor
Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne
Honorary Associate, Museum Victoria

Warren Fahey’s remarkable history, A Hop, Step and a Jump, is in his own words, a celebration of childhood.  The celebration has many forms, for children’s resilience and endurance, and also for joy, in describing the many pleasures play and games have always offered to children.  Games are described in fascinating detail, with many illustrations.

A Hop, Step and a Jump also highlights the importance of the study of children and their own unique play culture.  Many researchers, from the great Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget onwards, have described play’s influence on child language and intellectual development, on creativity, on personal relationships, and on social skills of all kinds.  Warren Fahey’s Hop, Step and a Jump is a readable, insightful and entertaining contribution to the great canon of childhood studies.   (Gwenda Beed Davey)