Reading SEARCH: In Search of the Lost Folk Tales

$29.95, Windows CD-ROM, Mac CD-ROM (hybrid)

Teaches: reading comprehension, different cultures, history

CTR Review

Children are sent back to one of four ancient sites; a Mayan town, a Tlinget village, a palace in China during the Tang Dynasty, and an ancient city in Africa. Their mission is to collect clues in an effort to reconstruct one of 70 scrambled folk tales. Each site has six different locations to explore and is accessed by clicking on an overhead view map. At the palace in the Tang Dynasty, for example, six different screens or areas of the village can be visited, each featuring talking characters and objects that help children learn more about the culture and period of time. The idea is to explore the screens in search of a specific object, such as a jade necklace, as requested by one of the characters. In order to collect the necklace, a comprehension exercise must be solved. For example, kids must select the type of adjectives that are highlighted in a block of text. This also "wins" back part of the folk tale. It took our testers, ages 10 and 14 (the older with reading difficulties) about an hour to solve one story. There are five different stories per village, so there is plenty of content for a wide age range (from 2nd to 6th grade). Especially useful are the design features, which let children sign in and track of progress from day to day. While the stories are fairly interesting, the exercises aren't disguised very well, making this program more educational than fun. A school version is also available.