The Little Samurai
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Davidson & Associates

Age Group: Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8 Type: Teaching Tools Price: 39.95

Description:

The Little Samurai is the latest offering from the Davidson's Magic Tales division. Inspired by a classic Japanese folk tale, The Little Samurai tells of a young boy who learns the power of laughter in a world much bigger than he is.

Features:

• Over 25 minutes of animation.
• Vibrantly colored graphics.
• Allows exploration in hundreds of clickables and amusing sound effects.
• Japanese-inspiried original melodies
• Builds reading skills, develops reading confidence.
• Classic life lessons.

Comparisons

Living Books' earlier titles have much less to offer; their latest titles, such as The Berenstain Bears Get In A Fight comes close to the Magic Tales series. However, the Magic Tales titles have more animation, vibrant colors and more music.

Reactions

The feeling here is that Magic Tales is a bit off in rating this title for age appropriateness. It's designed for ages 3 to 9; my own 3 year old played in the story for about 10 minutes, then announced, "I doan wike dis." and has since ignored it entirely. However, our 12 year old has enjoyed it thoroughly. Go figure. Perhaps the storyline is a bit too involved for younger children to appreciate. This title is one I'll show her again in a few weeks; it's certainly worth the time involved.

This is a beautiful story, the animations run smoothly and all three major formats are included on one CD-ROM: Windows 3.11, Windows '95 and Macintosh.

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