'Sissy's Got A Dolly!'

My Inner Child Runs Amok

A game inspired by Impunity Jane: The Story of a Pocket Doll; a book for children by Rumen Godden.

Any number of any age 5+ can play indoors or out.

Gather all the players and determine a 'batting' order. The first player leaves the group and picks up an object from within the pre-determined play area, say the living room. The first player may, for example, pick up a book! The player returns to the group and says "Look what I have!"

The group screams in horror and derision, "Sissy's got a Dolly!"

Player responds..."It's not a Dolly. Watch this!" The player then does an improvisation using the object in an unexpected way. The book could become a handheld fan, a comb, a mirror, etc., and the group guesses at each new incarnation. Once a correct guess has been made, the player may continue (without undue delay, say ten seconds) to change the book into different improvised items, each time announcing "Look what I have!" and the group responds, "Sissy's got a Dolly!" and the player responds, "It's not a Dolly. Watch this!" If the group cannot guess within reasonable length of time, Sissy tells what it is and may then announce another incarnation.

An outdoor chair becomes a shovel. A leaf becomes a hat or stationery. A shoe becomes a telephone. Sound effects or related commentary are encouraged. Once the player can no longer think of a new way to use the object, any player may take the object and center stage and perform his/her improvisations. If two or more players want to take the book next, those players might use rock, paper, scissors or Sissy could preside over "I'm thinking of a number between one and ten," or perhaps an adult supervisor could choose. Once all who desire to have taken a turn with the book, the next player gets to be Sissy and there is a new object.

I think in an effort to get through the batting order a bit quicker, once a player has had a turn with an object, that player may not return to the same object with a newly thought of incarnation after relinquishing the object to another player. Put another way, a player gets only one turn with each object, regardless of how many incarnations they perform during their turn.

It would be fairly easy to incorporate a scoring system, but I am disinclined to do so. Oh, by the way, the screaming is optional; speaking the phrases in a normal tone may work better for some groups in some situations. You could change the game a bit by having an adult supervisor/scorer pick each object and assign it to the player, or maybe start the game by offering the chosen object to the first player who wants it.