Tag Junior
© 2009 LeapFrog
The size of a fat salt shaker, this adaptation of last year's Tag reading system is designed to help younger children (ages 2-4) get ready to read by letting them "touch and hear" various paragraphs or illustrations in a set of accompanying books. You "stamp" the palm-sized device on any picture or paragraph to hear the associated narration. The kit includes the book If I Were and nine additional board books are sold separately, covering a range of topics, including sounds, colors, the alphabet, social play, counting and opposites. Titles include: Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? (sounds); Curious George: Color Fun (colors); ABC Animal Orchestra (alphabet); How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends? (social play); Disney Pooh Loves To ... (actions); Dora the Explorer: 1-2-3 Dora! (counting); The Backyardigans: Opposites (opposites), and David Smells! (senses). Like the Tag and the Fly, each page is coded with dotted media -- a slight mist of nearly invisible dots that gives the a camera in the device it's bearings on the page. As a result, there's no need to calibrate the device by pressing a reference icon, a clumsy process needed in the earlier LeapPad. Parents must use a computer (either Mac or Windows) to download new book content. You can watch our test at Toy Fair 2009 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsEFE_qfOk. Note that the Tag Reader will not work with the Tag Junior books, and vice versa. Tag Junior is powered by two AAA batteries, and all sounds come from the internal speaker (there is no headphone jack).The device can hold up to five books in memory at one time. Coming "Summer 2009" in two color schemes. Additional books cost $10 each.
$3510, Smart Toy
Teaches: early reading, letters, opposites, classification, language