THE GAMES WE PLAYED: A Celebration of Childhood and Imagination

Reading this breezy collection of childhood reminiscences, one cannot help but feel a nostalgic tug on the pant leg. Cohen returns us to our most common denominator—bottle-cap soldiers, lollipop gardens, stoopball—splendid visions yet to be squeezed out by adult realities. Cohen, a one-time press aide to former President Bill Clinton and deputy communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has assembled a diverse gallery of voices, including those of his former bosses. Other contributors include actress Esther Williams, weatherman Al Roker, writers Jackie Collins and George Plimpton, actor Andrew Shue and baseball player Billy Ripkin, Cal's little brother. The imaginative games recollected here are without borders, producing a commonality so pure it could only be found in a child's head. Some writers reminisce in the mediums of their callings: former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky writes a poem called "The Game;" cartoonist Judd Winick depicts his childhood games in illustrated panels. Who would have guessed that broadcast correspondent Gwenn Ifill was raised in a West Indian household where the game of dominoes was a psychological arena in which her family "flirt[ed] with violence at the same table where we broke bread." And the prose often further humanizes the participants: a cliché here, a repetition there. Overall, this anthology is like pleasant dinner-table conversation, chatty and anecdotal, embedded with wistful smiles, and bound to unlock chambers in even the most grown-up hearts. Agent, Joe Regal, Russel & Volkening. (June 12)