Little Golden Books in the Computer Age
A Review of The Sailor Dog: A Little Golden Book Interactive Story
Karina Worlton
When you see a child's book with a golden binding, you know it is a quality book. Why? Because Little Golden Books has been publishing the most-loved children's stories for fifty years. Everybody knows "The Poky Little Puppy," "Tootles," and many more. Now Little Golden Books has entered the computer age with an interactive storybook series. The first in the series, "The Sailor Dog," is based on a book written in 1953 by Margaret Wise Brown, also known for "Goodnight Moon." It is illustrated by Garth Williams, who also illustrated "Charlotte's Web."
There are plenty of interactive storybooks on the market, many of which are very similar. "The Sailor Dog" stands out for the variety in the activities. Of course, this CD has all the standard options. You can have the story read to you or you can play in the story. You can go through the pages sequentially or jump to any page you wish. It comes with two languages, English and Spanish. Each page has plenty of "clickables," those animations that occur when you click on an object.
Moving beyond the standard features, this interactive storybook starts with a title page. You can type in your child's name (or better yet, teach him or her to type!), thereby personalizing the book. Some storybooks do include this feature now, but "The Sailor Dog" adds a large database of names, and will read "This storybook belongs to Benjamin." (Benjamin is my 3-year-old son, and he loves this CD. He loves hearing his name come out of the computer. I consider my name, Karina, to be rather unusual, but surprisingly, it is in the database. If you enter a name not included, the computer voice will spell it out.)
You then arrive at the main menu screen, which has options of "Read,"
"Play," "Sounds," "Options," "Activities," and "Exit." The story itself
is twenty-six pages long, which is longer than the other ones I have
seen. The sailor dog, Scuppers, sets off to sea and gets shipwrecked.
Along the way, you watch a "music video" showing how to get everything
"Shipshape!" In the Play option, there are four activities that
reinforce the events in the story.
These activitities can also be accessed from the main menu under the "Activities" option, represented by a treasure chest. One activity is a variation of "Frogger" (which they call "dogger") where you try to maneuver Scuppers car across a busy highway. In another, you play "dot-to-dot" and trace the constellations. After you have completed the dot-to-dot, you will see a drawing of what the constellation represents (such as Perseus), helping you to learn the constellation formations and their names. You can dress Scuppers in a variety of outfits by making his headgear, shirt and pants match in a third activity. A fourth activity allows you to put together jigsaw puzzles.
The fifth activity in the activity chest is a coloring book. You can print out a coloring book version of any page in the interactive story book. The printout is a full 8+" x 11" size, with a small caption. This is a delightful feature, because you can reinforce the story for your children by allowing them to color the pictures after you shut down your computer.
Another feature that adds to the uniqueness of this product is the sound
box, represented by a speaker on the main menu. Here, you can watch two
music videos, featuring songs called "The Sailor Dog" and "Shipshape!"
You can also choose to sing along. If you select this option, you will
see the words on your screen instead of the "music video," and the
appropriate words will be highlighted when it is time to sing them. The
Sounds option lets you listen to any of 24 sound effects from the story.
For example, there are several animals, thunder, musical instruments,
and a drill.
The only problem I found with this product is that some "hot spots" are
too small. For example, on one page, you can click on the bunk ladder
to cause an animated sequence. However, if you had the cursor in the
space between two rungs, you could not click on it. That is too small
an area, especially in a product for three to six year olds. I was
slightly annoyed by the background music, which reminded me of the
"Always Coca-Cola" jingle. Of course, that will not bother children at
all. On the whole, this is an entertaining interactive storybook with
some attractive features that make it stand out from others in the same
genre.
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
The Sailor Dog: A Little Golden Book Interactive Story |
| Company: |
Golden Books Interactive
|
| Cost: |
$29.95 |
System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 (or higher)
486, 33MHz (or higher) IBM-compatible computer
4MB RAM (minimum--8 recommended) or higher
256 Color SVGA Windows-compatible graphics card
CD-ROM drive (double speed),
Windows-compatible sound card Mouse or
Windows compatible pointing device.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.