Guest Author - Lynn Little

Ages 6 and up

Players 2 - 5

Playing Time 15 minutes

Pounce is a card game that was inspired by how kitten's play. Kittens love to sneak and then pounce on items. The card game will have you choose where you want to pounce and if you are the first, then you are one step closer to winning the game.

Pounce consists of 25 Room cards featuring 5 different rooms, 25 cats featuring 5 different cats, and 1 Bruno the Bulldog card. To set up the game, make five stacks - each stack containing cards from one room. Then give players five cat cards - each representing a different cat. Each cat corresponds to one of the five rooms. You can tell by the background on the cat card which cat belongs to which room. Give the Bruno card to the player who was the last to pet a cat.

Now choose a cat card and place it in front of you face down. The player with the Bruno card can now place it on any room stack. Now players turn over their cat card and shout "Pounce!" at the same time. Then players must slap the room card that is a match to their cat. If you are the first to slap and Bruno is not in that room, then take the top room card. In the event of a tie, then both players receive a card. If you pounce on the wrong room, then it costs you one of your room cards. The first player to collect either four different rooms or four cards of the same room wins the game.

The rules can be extended to make for a longer game. Have players collect six room cards to win the game.

Pounce is from the card game company Gamewright and features brightly-colored cards that come in a small storage cardboard box. The rules are simple and game play is fast - making this a great card game for kids with a short attention span. While the recommended age is six and up, pre-schoolers might enjoy this one as well.