Review of LeapPad: Leap 2 Math - "The Great Dune Buggy Race" Interactive Book

Customer Ratings:

With this book, children have the opportunity to join Leap the Frog and his friends on a quest to build a dune buggy that Leap will drive in a dune buggy race.

Some notes about what is in the book:

1. Users can choose to have the narrartor's voice read the story aloud, or they can try to read it themselves. If a reader comes across a word he or she does not know, simply touch the pen to the word, and the narrator will say the word.

2. The book is 24 pages long, and just about every page has an activity that plays a part in helping Leap build the dune buggy and win the race (Oops! I gave away the ending!). For example, Leap must find his Grandpa's dune buggy sketch and plan. The plan is hidden in one of 18 bottles that line 3 shelves. To help Leap, touch the dune buggy at the bottom of the page. The narrator says, "Let's play a game. Find the orange bottle shaped like a circle. Find the bottle below it." If the reader correctly completes the narrator's requests, they are informed by Grandpa, "You've found it!" With 3 rows of 6 bottles each, there is a lot of variety 6 different colors, 3 different shapes. This was a fairly simple activity that gets the reader's brain geared up for some of the other more challenging activities ahead.

3. I was surprised by how many "hidden item" games there were in the story. Out of the 11 games that I've seen, there were 4 hidden item games. Readers are given a list and pictures of items to find in the currently viewed page(s). I didn't think there was much value to these games at first, but my son's attention was held by the activity a minor miracle considering his short attention span (he was 4 yrs old when he received this book).

4. Other games help with counting money, measuring length, subtraction, and addition. The actual race is an activity that consists of a maze. These games are all pretty cool.

All in all, I found this worth the money. It isn't the first book that my son pulls out, but he does flip through it every now and then. Although the characters are cute, my son dismisses them, because they aren't very memorable (my opinion) which may be because they don't have their own TV shows or other books. He seems more interested in the Scooby Doo book and the Superman book. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

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