I SPY Fantasy
© 2003 Scholastic, Inc.
Note: please see I SPY Fantasy Deluxe (2004). This eighth I SPY title is the best, perhaps because it is based on children's favorite pages of the I SPY Fantasy book. When polled, kids liked the castle, outerspace and undersea pages of the book best, and so the designers based the CD-ROM's adventures on just those themes. Children are delighted with this title, and we are, too. The format is tried and true, and the graphics are particularly stunning, with more special lighting effects and animated objects than previous I SPY titles. After signing in, players see a view of a child's messy, interesting room, with items that lead to adventures. Clicking the fish tank takes children on a search for lost treasures under the sea; a toy rocket leads them to a mission on Mars; and a collection of beach toys lets them invade a dragon-infested sand castle to save a princess. Along the way, it's not uncommon to see the child's name appear in a riddle, one of the subtle but effective techniques that keeps children engaged in the adventure. As they solve the 54 I Spy riddles and play the other scavenger hunts and games, children are exposed to a rich vocabulary experience that cleverly presents opportunities for using logic, memory, listening and rhyming. Our testers, four kids aged 5-8, huddled around the computer for hours, working together to solve the puzzles. Because progress is saved, the program will work well in either classroom or home settings.
$19.95, Macintosh, Windows
Teaches: reading, logic, memory, listening, rhyming, and vocabulary