Stories from the Storybag: Maylo and the Leopard

Unless you have a very old computer (low end 486 or 68K MAC), this program just does not meet todays higher standards for computer software. While James Graham is a fine story teller, the program itself is anything but impressive.

Maylo and the Leopard is a short story about a leopard cub who is saved by a monkey named Maylo. When Maylo has a baby of his own, the baby is saved by a now grown leopard cub. End of story. Nothing too exciting, and with no decent animation to boost the entertainment value. Words are printed at the bottom of the screen, but can not be isolated by your child. This is something I 'demand' in a good storybook program. You never real care much about these characters, and with no fun hot spots, cool music, or even decent sound, your child will quickly move to more exciting programs.

There are a lot of games that accompany this program, but they don't have a lot to do with the story. We found that we didn't care enough about the characters to really WANT to do addition drills with Maylo. The games your child can play after listening to the story are:

Maylo the Magician: drill addition, multiplication and subtraction problems

Maylo in Banana Land: Answer questions by filling in the blank. You must try to get Maylo to the top of the screen.

Hyenas Word Jumble: Unscramble words to complete a sentence

Jungle Hunt: A maze, featuring the leopard cub. If your child makes a mistake, there is no way to go back in the maze. Your child must follow the incorrect path until the game is lost, allowing them to start over again.

Search-A-Word: A basic word search featuring jungle words.

Create-O-Word: When given a word such as 'chimpanzee' your child must see how many three, four and five letter words can be created from this word.

How much do you know?: Answer comprehension questions from the story.

Memory with Maylo: The ever-present concentration game.

We were just not impressed at all with this program. Unless your have a very old computer, your kids are used to more impressive programs, and will not enjoy this as an interactive storybook. You are better off buying the better Living Books programs, and doing your math and reading drill with programs designed specifically for that task.

Grading for Stories from the Storybag: Maylo and the Leopard Educational Value: 2 Entertainment Value: 1 1/2 Replay Value: 2 Available from Preolis at http://www.preolis.com/store.html