Cat in The Hat by Dr. Seuss, The
© 2007 Software MacKiev
Great as a language experience for beginning readers, this Living Book was first released over ten years ago. It was one of the last Living Books from Broderbund created by the original team. So it's nice to see it dusted off and republished, even though you have to have a Mac to enjoy it. In the program, children join hosts Sally and Tommy when The Cat In The Hat shows up for some rainy day fun. Hiding behind the pictures are plenty of high quality animated routines—some of which lead to activities. For example, children help The Cat In The Hat make a tower of balancing toys, or draw funny faces on the wall. The 14-page animated book nicely introduces reading words as it uses lots of word and picture combinations. The software is cleverly executed and appealing, but limited in terms of depth and breadth of activities. New Mac-specific features include the ability to play the songs and animated routines on your video iPod.
$25, Mac OSX
Teaches: word recognition, vocabulary, reading comprehension, early computer skills
CTR Rating: 88%