A brief intro to Tag: these Tag books require a "pen", which is like a thick pointing device which has a built-in speaker/headphone jack and usb connector. There is also software that goes on your computer, where you download the audio content for the book on to the computer and then into the "pen". The child then uses the pen as much as they want to help read the book or enhance the story. In some ways it's really amazing, touch a word with the pen and the pen will pronounce the word for you. Touch a picture and the pen will play a sound effect or quote from the character. The pen can be made to "read" the entire story as well, allowing the child to either follow along with the words or just look at the pictures. There are also games to play in the books, to test story comprehension, grammar, and other skills. There is a lot of flexibility as to how a family can choose to use the Tag system.
It appears LeapFrog is coming out with the next generation of Tag pen, called the "LeapReader". I don't know how it will be different than the Tag pen.
Anyway, on to MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, which I understand is a "prequel" to the MONSTERS INC. movie.
This movie hasn't come out yet, but it's safe to assume that this book is a synopsis of the movie. If a child didn't know anything about these characters or the original MONSTERS INC story, THIS BOOK WILL BE CONFUSING. Beyond that, an ending that finds the two main characters working in a mail room of a corporation and thinking it's cool is absolutely uninteresting, isn't it? In fact, even with intimate knowledge of MONSTERS INC. this book is clearly not a stand-alone story, the way, for instance, the Toy Story movies all are.
So, this is not a great story, for many reasons other than the above. I'll reserve judgment about the plot, character development and so on until I've seen the actual movie.
But, the artwork and the 3D effects really captivated our son. Of course, I almost destroyed the flimsy 3D glasses when I tried them on; no grown-up could hope to wear those things, and they could even stand to be a tad larger for my son. I did notice that although the art looked great, the text was harder to read w/ the 3d glasses on.
He has also been enjoying the games. At one point he showed the book to me and said "LOOK, I'm learning about VERBS!"
In no way am I endorsing this as a replacement for one-to-one time with parent and child and a book; nothing beats sitting with your child and reading together. However. If you as the parent can stand the glitz and product placement, can handle the "electronic device" component, and can understand that the goal here is to entertain your kid while teaching him about grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension, you'll feel good about using this product, and this book, as a supplement to his educational development.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program My four year old now has about ten of these hardcover books to go with his Tag Reader pen, and not one of them has yet to get old. He still uses the sample book that came with the pen, for that matter. It really is a fun learning device.So much so that as I got the book and pen to go through the book to review it, he grabbed them from me and he's now exploring Monster's University yet again. It might help that we took him out to see the movie this week, and he had a great time watching Monster's University in the theater.
If you're not familiar with LeapFrog's LeapReader, it's a very easy to use, lightweight, pen-shaped reader which interprets text and images from LeapFrog books, then narrates what you've selected. It also gives you fun tasks to perform; asking you to go find something throughout the book, or in the case of Monster's University, asking you to create your own monster.
You do have to establish an account with LeapFrog where you can download each book's software to the pen. The pen allows you or your child to read the stories or play the games, and as the pen stores only a certain amount of books in its memory, this account includes a library where you can select which books you can keep on your pen.
Specifically regarding this Monster's University, there is the aforementioned Create Your Own Monster game as well as a "Where's Waldo" style game where you have to find several monsters one at a time from a large university classroom. Several pages throughout the book also have game icons which, when pressed, ask trivia questions about the story. One non-game activity has Sully teaching a class on the verbs and nouns of scaring methods. The games have two levels of difficulty, and once the first levels have been mastered, the "level twos" are available.
Of course, the main thing about the book is that you can click on one icon, and a very pleasant voice reads the whole book to you. Or, you can choose to have that same voice read you one page at a time. Or the best part to me; the pen allows you to read one word at a time, so when your little boy or girl is trying to read it on their own, they can use the pen to help them out as the go along. What's that word? Point at it. Slide over it. The word is revealed. They can do this with Mom or Dad right there, or if they're busy, they can do it themselves. It's a great concept.
I give this book (as I would, most likely, all books for this product) 4.5 stars, and that .5 star is taken off only because I think this product will only get better. I highly, highly recommend, for Monster's U and for the Tag Reader.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This book is a part of the "Read o Your Own Series". Of course, with the movie coming out, this will be a fun book for readers. It comes with 3-D glasses. They are thick paper, so I don't think they'll last a long time. The good news is that book does not require the glasses. The book looks perfectly normal in 2-D.As with other LeapReaders, this book has different modes for reading and games to help kids learn parts of speech, position words and some deductive reasoning.
In the back of the book there are extra pages focusing on the parts of speech.
The illustrations are interesting and colorful. Kids will enjoy this book a lot, as do mine.
Honest reviews on LeapFrog LeapReader 3D Book: Disney·Pixar Monsters
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program My daughter loves her leapfrog Tag and was so happy to get this. We went to see the movie so she was familiar with the characters and story. It loads easily, just like the others. She also enjoyed the 3d aspect of it but lost the glasses within a week. I'm hoping to find them when I sweep under my couches. The only improvement would've been some sort of pocket/slot to hold the glasses in the book.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for LeapFrog LeapReader 3D Book: Disney·Pixar Monsters
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Because they both will fight over who gets to read the book with the "magic pen." This is a wonderful toy for children just starting to sound out their words and needing a guide to help them with the sounds. It makes learning to read fun and the 3-D aspect makes it even better. They love it.
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