Letters and Numbers

This children's game has a deck of 40 cards, each with a letter and a number. The cards are in 4 suits -- stars, moons, planets, and comets -- and the numbers are the ranks 1-10 in each suit. The cards have attractive artwork -- a painting of an object that begins with the letter. There are 3 games described: Letter Game: Deal out all the cards. In a turn a player asks another player for a needed letter, and lays a word down to the table if possible. The game ends when one player goes out, or if everyone is stuck; the player with the most words wins. Number Game: As above, except the players are trying to form a set of 1-10 in a suit, played in order as they are received. Cross Letter: Deal 6 each. In a turn a player draws 1 from the draw or discard pile, lays down up to 4 letters to make a word, and discards 1. The cards must be played to a growing crossword array. When one player goes out, everyone adds the total of points in their hand to their total. When one player reaches 100, the one with the lowest total wins.