Very young children can build up pictures by typing in the names of familiar objects and seeing them appear "by magic". From the child's point of view, Picture Book is an exciting new way of making pictures rather than a spelling practice. This is important as it puts skills of writing and spelling on the right perspective. Or, at least, that's the idea behind this program.

Technically, this program is very good compared with other educational programs, usually written by teachers who know the subject but do not know how to program. Oric graphics are used well and it is well fool-proofed. There is a facility to save and load pictures created using this program.

I do agree that writing and spelling are simple means of enabling the child to do something he or she wants, as the inlay card says. But whether a child who is still learning to spell words such as "TOY" is capable of loading this program and using the QWERTY keyboard is another matter.

S.S.