In this animated electronic book, Tigger‘s friends have had enough of Tigger‘s bouncing. Having been knocked down one time too many, Rabbit comes up with a plan where Pooh, Tigger and friends go deep into the woods to try to lose Tigger. The scheme backfires and Rabbit himself gets lost, learning an important lesson about true friendship. For kids unfamiliar with the story, it seemed that one or two pages were missing. Children were confused about what happened between the time that Rabbit was wandering about with his friends and when suddenly he was on his own. Although the activities are pretty much the usual stuff, they are very well integrated into the story line. For instance, after Tigger knocks over Rabbit in his vegetable garden, kids help pick up scattered vegetables and rinse out clothes splashed with dirt. When Tigger gets stuck up in a tree, they direct Pooh through a maze so he can provide some help. There‘s also a vegetable matching game, a tic-tac-toe game and a memory game in which kids match sequences of bouncing characters. Children cannot save their games but they can choose from three levels of difficulty. They can also easily jump to pages of interest. Testers‘ biggest complaint was that the characters sometimes talk too much. None of the kids discovered on their own that the space bar interrupts the narration and animation. On the whole children loved the appealing Winnie the Pooh and his friends, as well as the brief but engaging story. The voice-overs sound just like the "real" characters, and the graphics are excellent.
The magic of Disney comes to life on the computer screen in this CD-ROM rendition of the classic tale about 101 adorable Dalmatians and the nasty Cruella De Vil. We were really enchanted with this interactive storybook and found it to be well designed and innovative. As in typical e-book format, the story text is highlighted as it is read aloud, but differs from the norm by including on each page a clever "interactive thesaurus" that introduces kids to word synonyms. The program‘s interface is also unique in that instead of turning pages, children participate in the action to move the story along. They click on doors, follow footprints, and scroll through panoramas to move from one screen to the next, and along the way they find activities, including four multilevel learning games. Kids must match dogs to their owners by seeking out their similarities, and use auditory memory to break secret codes. In other games, they follow clues to find puppies and navigate mazes by picking up objects beginning with certain letters. The games all emphasize early reading and build visual and auditory discrimination, letter-sound recognition and vocabulary skills. In addition to these embedded activities, children will also come across sing-alongs. Testers, aged three to six, all liked the program. One family reported enjoying the CD, but said they wouldn‘t purchase it because they feel animated storybooks don‘t have enough staying power. Another family raved about the title and said "The best Disney program that we‘ve tried so far. It‘s a delight!" This family also commented on the program‘s high educational value. They especially liked the clue game in which at upper levels kids must figure out riddles. "Terrific for critical thinking."
Teaches: reading, letter-sound recognition, vocabulary
Want to see some incredible 3D animation? Look no further than this 15-page interactive storybook based on the Disney film. Cheer‘s John Ratzenberger narrates the tale of little boy Andy‘s toys- it seems they all get along just fine until a new action hero, Buzz Lightyear, arrives. Woody, the sheriff doll, determines that his position as head toy is in jeopardy, and havoc breaks loose. Fortunately, the toys learn to work together as they thwart a nasty neighbor kid‘s plan to blow up Buzz. Friendship and kindness win out! This strong story is filled with humor and endearing characters. Clickables are great- most are tied directly to content and help to move the story along. The program is very easy to use, and while we would consider its emphasis to be entertainment, there is educational value as well. Text is highlighted as it is read, and five fun, albeit limited, activities accompany the main story. It is toward the activities that most of our criticisms are directed. While several are innovative and engaging, others are weak. All five activities seem geared toward the younger children in the target age-group. The Put-Away the Toys game can be played three different ways and promotes listening and following directions. The object is to pay attention to visual clues and auditory instructions to drag and click toys to their proper places. The Crane Game takes place in an arcade and involves counting and sorting objects by color. There is also a multilevel maze game where the toys must rush to catch a moving van while avoiding red lights, roadblocks and a vicious dog. Testers, especially those aged 5-7, loved the program. Older children wished for a longer story with more things to do.
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