Arthur's Reading Race

Arthur learns to read at school and now he reads everything he sees. But,when he tells D.W. that he'll teach her to read, D.W. says she already knows howto read. To prove it, Arthur and D.W. go around town playing a game of who canread more words. Arthur promises to buy ice cream for his little sister, D.W.,if she can read ten words.  The twosome race to the park, where D.W.is quick to recognize signs such as zoo, don't walk, police, and ice cream.  Whenshe reads wet paint before her big brother does, Arthur is in for a colorfulsurprise!   More than just an animated storybook, this interactive creation includesthree educational games that develop word recognition and other basic readingskills. What's more, since the games are actually fun, they provide anexperience that everyone can truly enjoy - which is more than we can sayabout piano lessons.  Kids can read along with the story. Words arehighlighted as the story is read and children can click on a particular word tohear it reread. Arthur doesn't think D. W. can read. Follow them as Arthur putsher to the test. Find out who gets the reward. There are fun surprises andhundreds of clickables along the way.

The I Spy game
I see something that teaches children to love reading. Can you spot it?

Reading Race game
Match a word to the picture and help Arthur and D.W. race to the Ice CreamStore.

Let Me Write!
Drag pictures of items up to the paper tablet to form sentences, to help teachnew words.

• Windows 98, Me, XP
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The reading race game is excellent, however the authors did not include nearly enough words in the game to keep it interesting long term. A real shame, as the game itself is motivating and educational and would have real value in teaching spelling and word recognition skills if only the dictionary was larger.

The previews of other games are a great addition - good advertising for the publishers and very entertaining in their own right.


fun and some learning   September 27, 2000
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

This CD is just plain fun. Anyone buying this program because they want to teach their child to read may be buying the wrong product. But it does help early learners to "see" words, and connect word/object relationships ... at least somewhat. And that in itself makes it worthy of some educational value. But the best value in this is the fun. The prizes are fun too .... weird flavored ice cream. My own feelings are that if you want to teach your child to read, you shouldn't depend on software, for the most part software is just a way to practice what they learn via actual instruction. This is a great, fun, and easy to play CD.


Mom from NH   November 27, 2006
Kristine P. Caster (New Hampshire United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I LOVE this interactive CD. My 8 year old son has autism. The wonderful graphics and animation has captured his interest in wanting to read, whereas, it is difficult.
Also, he is able to relate to what he does in school to the CD. They all sit in circle and Arthur and his friends sit in circle, too.
These are simple sight words that they use and we are very pleased with this product. This makes learning FUN!
And, when the sentence is read, it is hi-lighted so you know what is being read. It is a great visual product for a visual learner! NICE!

I am going to be sure to inform my school about this! Since a lot of our kids with autism are great on the computer, I hope school will be able to use this with him as well... Wonderful creative learning.


Review of Reading Race   May 26, 2001
Tina Reynolds (East Lansing, MI United States)
My son loves this CD and honestly so do I. While it is not going to teach your child to read, it will help them with word recognition some. On each page of the story there are several items to select for interesting surprises. You can either have the program automatically continue after each page, or stop and let you explore the page and its contents.

I think there is not any overt rudness in the program that is above and beyond the book series itself and the interaction between Arthur and DW.


Autistic Kid Loves It   September 28, 2004
Christopher K. Koenigsberg (Norman, OK USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

My 7-year old autistic daughter loves this game and will play with it for hours.

She can already read, better than the level this game is targetted for, but what she loves is all the fun animations from all the clickable hotspots.