SCRABBLE (Junior Versions)


Junior English Edition

The Selchow & Righter Co. produced a number of versions of the game of Scrabble designed especially for children and younger players. Some of these games were designed for English speaking young people, and some were designed for French speaking young people. The intent was that many of these games would be used in school language programs, and in the homes of young people to support their school language education. This page includes examples of some of these games. These copies were donated to the Museum in 1978.

The box (photograph above) is 47.5cm long x 24.3cm wide x 4.5cm deep. As indicated on the box top, this is the second edition in the series. On the inside of the top of the box are printed instructions for playing the game.

English version board

The board (photograph on the right) when closed is 46.8cm long x 24.6cm wide x .5cm thick. When open, the board is 46.8cm long x 47cm wide x .2cm thick. Both sides of the board have playing surfaces.

The side in the photograph is the "Easy Game". This surface is divided into 225 cells. 100 cells have black capital letters outlined in white, forming 31 words in crossword fashion: drum, quiet, lizard, toad, vest, zoo, doe, eat, airplane, fish, igloo, elf, cowboy, boat, wagon, jug, men, truck, cat, train, pig, girl, logs, sheep, kite, yarn, swan, whale, lion, ox, eel. The cells containing the first letter also include a picture in color related to the word. A more difficult game is on the reverse side of the board. The reverse surface is yellow with a white boarder. It is divided in 169 cells. The center cell has a 5 pointed star. This border contains 25 pictures, corresponding words, such as anchor, bird, camel, duck, Eskimo, frog, giraffe, house.

Frech Junior Box

Along with the board are perforated sheets of letter tiles. These are 100 black capital letters printed on 2.7cm square tiles. Also in the box are perforated sheets containing 36 round disks, 1.5cm diameter, used for scoring purposes in the games.

A similar game in the French language was also produced. The photograph on the right is of the box for this game. The box is the same size as the English version, but all of the printed content is in the French language.

The content of this box is similar to the English version, and includes a two sided board, perforated sheets of letter tiles with imprinted black letters, and round discs for scoring purposes. The major difference in the two games is the letter distribution, which is based on language use.

French Junior Board

The "Easy Game" side (photograph on the right) is divided by black lines into 225 cells, 2.8cm. 100 cells have black capital letters outlined in white. 27 have pictures. Words are in the cells in crossword style: LIME, MORSE, DRAPEAU, WAGON, ALLIGATOR, OS, BATEAU, OIE, VACHE, COQ, OISEAU, LIT, OREILLE, LUNE, NID, DENT, TOIT, NEZ, RIZ, FEE, CHEVAL, SCIE, MUT, KANGOUROU, PYJAMA, ARBRE, YEUX.

French Junior Board reverse

The reverse side (photograph on the left) has a more difficult game which is divided by black lines into 169 cells, each 2.8cm square. The middle cell has a black 5 pointed star. In the white border surrounding a green playing surface there are 26 pictures of suggested words to be used. French word for each object included in black capital letters: ABEILLE, BALEINE, CHIEN, DRAGON, ELEPHANT, FRAISE, GIRAFE, HORLOGE, ILE, JAGUAR, KEPI, LAPIN, MOUTON, NOEUD, OURS, POISSON, QUICHE, RENARD, SINGE, TORTUE, URNE, VALISE, WAGON, XYLOPHONE, YACHT, ZEBRE.

In both the English and French language games the object is the same. In the "Easy Version" the intent is to cover each letter marked on the board with a tile of the corresponding letter. When the entire word is covered, the player earns a round counter. The player with most counters wins. In the more difficult game, the intent is to make complete words on the board in crossword fashion much like in a standard game of Scrabble. Points are accumulated according to the number of letters in a word. Player with highest score, when all tiles are used, is winner.

In addition to these modified Scrabble games for younger people, Selchow and Righter also produced "Junior Versions" of some of it's other crossword games, such as the Sentence Game For Juniors.


Last update June 1, 2010