Golden Books Family Entertainment, Inc. and Powerhouse's storybook CD-ROMs let children explore the interactive pages of each tale, discovering puzzles and games, memorable characters and new words. Each story coaches kids in reading, word pronunciation and computer familiarity.
"Little Golden Books Interactive Stories brings engaging and esteemed tales to the family PC with vivid animation and healthy interactivity, and also gives children control so they can proceed at their own pace", said Frank Mazza, president and CEO, Powerhouse Entertainment. "Kids can learn in an environment that is fun, age specific and full of sights, sounds and colorful characters."
"Little Golden Books Interactive Stories provides fun and interactive ways for children to discover the enchanted world of reading," said Frank Synder, chief technology officer, Golden Books Family entertainment, Inc. "The stories encourage a love of literature while accelerating the learning process. Little Golden Books are stories parents and even grandparents have grown up with and now they can share these wonderful classic tales with their children."
Each title in the Little Golden Books Interactive Stories series features distinct characters and were created by different children's artists. The commonality is that each story contains a valuable moral lesson for kids.
"The Sailor Dog" is the first in a series of six Little Golden Books Interactive Stories from Powerhouse and based on the story from Margaret Wise Brown, author of the classic children's book, "Goodnight Moon." The CD-ROM features growing up on a farm, Scuppers seeks adventure on the high seas but strikes out when he sets sail, encountering a storm and shipwrecking. Once he repairs his ship, Scuppers sails to port to replenish his supplies and once again embark on another voyage. Scuppers discovers he should always do what's in his blood, no matter what the challenge.
In "Right's Animal Farm," Mr. Right learns being happy is more important than being orderly. Persnickety farmer Right wants everything to be perfect and he doesn't want the ducks to muddy the pond by swimming or the barn animals to scatter straw. The animals grow tired of his neatness and teach him a lesson by trading places with each other. The cow pretends to be the cat, the cat pretends to be the duck and the duck pretends to be the chicken. Mr. Right looks at tall the of the farm animals and laughs, realizing that order isn't everything.
Children make a series of decisions throughout each interactive storybook, such as deciding if they want to be read to in English or Spanish or if they want to read the story or have it read to them. If they choose to have the story read, kids can listen to an array of entertaining voices tell each tale while following along on colorful screen pages. Youngsters can read and interact with the story, as well as select and explore specific book pages. They can assist their favorite characters, deciding how to help them resolve a conflict or complete their adventure. Kids can also click on story text to hear the pronunciation of individual words. Clicking on the "Re-Read" icon will repeat the text for that page. An electronic book mark will save their place.
By clicking a sound box icon, children can listen to original sing-a-long songs, specifically composed for each title, and hear ambient sounds from the book such as a door closing or a cat meowing.
An activity center features games and puzzles, complete with help or hints and rewards for finding solutions to challenging situations. Additionally, characters and locations from the story can be printed out in coloring book formats for away from the computer fun.
Both "The Sailor Dog" and "Right's Animal Farm" will be available June 1996 for IBM-compatible PCs in a Windows 3.X/Windows 95 version at all major retail outlets. The estimated street price is $29.95.
Powerhouse Entertainment, an interactive entertainment company with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and a production studio in Los Angeles, develops and markets products for the entire family. Powerhouse Entertainment combines the best of Hollywood studio model with innovative software programming and production techniques; and proprietary live- action video, animation and voice recognition technology. Powerhouse offers independent developers a publishing partners program with broad capabilities and a flexible approach to meet their specific needs. With this dynamic business plan, Powerhouse is positioned to become one of the leading entertainment companies.
