This program, which comes in two parts on cassette, claims to 'stimulate the interest of children of all ages, especially beneficial to those learning their ABC'. It does this by the use of the extensive graphics facilities of the BBC, which are used with some imagination. The presentation is pleasant and does not distract from the task in hand. But here's a problem - what is the task in hand?

A child of, say, four or five years old who has just started learning to read is expected to look at the picture displayed on the screen and associate that picture with one of four lower-base letters that are presented in a row underneath it. The question is whether it is either educationally valid to make associations between letter shapes and printed words rather than between letter sounds and aurally received words when the child is at the 'ABC' stage, or whether it is indeed possible for the brain of a child so young to make that 'leap'.

Having chosen the letter, the child then moves an arrow using the cursor control keys until it is positioned roughly under the letter and presses COPY (Why not RETURN?) in order to confirm his choice. If the choice is wrong, a large cross appears, the word itself is displayed under the picture and the correct letter highlighted. The wrongly answered picture is later returned to and the process continues till all pictures are covered.

Another problem, which arises with all programs of this type, is that the characters displayed in the book are not compatible with those on the screen. Nor are the pictures in the book compatible with those in the program - 't' for free in the book and for tardis (!) in the program.

These inconsistencies appeared in the first part of the program and were then corrected in the second part when the letters were done again.

All in all, it was a peculiar program; a shame as the graphics and sound were fun.