Sarasota PC Monitor
The Storybook
A Software Review
by Elsie M. Mason
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.If you would like to make learning to read more fun for your youngster, you will find that "The Storybook" is a great help! There are 40 stories from beginner to second grade level that your child or children will enjoy.
The first time that you use it, you will have to go into your computer Explorer to bring "The Storybook" from your CD ROM drive to your computer screen. "The Storybook" is a companion to "The Reading Lesson", but it can be used independently. This program contains 40 short stories for youngsters learning to read. A few of these stories are printed in "The Reading Lesson" workbook as they are presented in "The Storybook" program. Some of the other stories are written in an expanded version in the same workbook.
As in "The Reading Lesson", the stories start at beginning reading level and become more complex as a youngster continues through the program. The computer program provides a human voice that precisely pronounces the sounds of the new words in each story, so that the child can easily repeat the sound of the word that he has heard as he reads it. The pictures in the each story become animated when the student chooses each one with a mouse.
One of the nice things about this program is that you can print the colored pages (two per 8 1/2' x 11" sheet) of each story (except the title page). The child can cut out the small printed pages of each story including the page containing new words in the story. Each page is marked with the name of the story on them, so they can be stapled together easily to form a book. When I tried this with my pre-school granddaughter, she thought that it was great fun! It spurred a greater interest in reading other written material, also. She liked printing the name of the story on a blank cover and on the title pages when several stories were put into one book. She wanted to make more than one book, so we made a book each time I worked with her.
Because the program provides a list of the numbered stories, they do not have to be picked in any specific order. The child can go back by using the menu bar and pick a favorite one to read again or to print. Otherwise, the program is set up for the child to move forward or backward one story at a time as well as one page at a time.
I found that putting "The Storybook" icon on my screen made it easier to access the program each time, but the CD has to be in your CD-ROM drive.
This program requires at least a 200 MHz CPU with 2.5 MB RAM, a CD ROM drive, a sound card, a 256 color monitor or above, and Windows 95 or above. A printer is optional.
"The Storybook" CD is produced by the Mountcastle Company of San Ramon, California (mntcastle@earthlink.net). This CD can be purchased locally for $29.95. :
Copyright 2001. This article is from the October 2001 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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