Cyber Grannies
Ages 3 - 6

This is one of those sleepers. It's Canadian - I haven't seen it in the stores and it's the most inventive kid product I've seen in ages. Twenty-six letters in the alphabet, twenty- six Cyber Grannies, and twenty-six colorful environments in which to play games.

The Grannies are like good grannies should be - with a gentle voice they are willing to help but they get out of your way and let you do things yourself. They all are busy with their own lives. The professions and occupation follow the letters of the alphabet and so you have, an artist, a dentist, a farmer, a plumber, a journalist - you get the idea - great role models.

Each granny is occupies her unique brightly colored setting and most of spaces have three rooms to explore. Clicking on objects in these rooms result in amusing animations accompanied with both the spelling and the pronunciation of the word - these are not all baby words - electricity, perfume, refrigerator. To get to another letter you have to locate and leave by finding the exit which is usually some weirdly designed door.

But the greatest feature in Cyber Grannies is the inventive games and puzzles - all twenty- six of them. The learning is fun and the whole thing just flows. There is so much creativity in this product it must have been a labor of love.

When a letter is visited - it gets a granny face to keep track of where you have been. It would have been nice to have been able to save a game since it is unlikely to be completed in one session. You will just have to remember which granny you have seen. Gooood game.

Reviewed by Maryanne 9/99