Happy Letters is a comprehensive letter-matching program for the three to five year age-range. Both upper and lower case letters are matched with other upper and lower case letters on the screen or with the keys on the keyboard. An additional facility is the use of the voice synthesis chip (if fitted to your machine) which pronounces each letter to be matched as it appears. It is the name of the letter rather than its sound that is produced, which some teachers of reading would frown upon. The program works without the sound option.

The letters to be matched are produced in sixes, alphabetically, from a pre-selected part of the alphabet. This means you can control which area the child concentrates on. The six letters, or words beginning with them, appear in a column and the first letter to be matched jumps down the right-hand side of the list, begging to be matched. The child responds with the RETURN key when the letters match.

Several attempts are allowed, the final ones prompted by a flashing box around the correct answer. The correctly matched letter then moves into a box on the left of the screen and six angry-looking fish on the right gobble up the letters as they are chosen. The fish return smiling, ready for the last stage of the program.

When all attempts have been made and the fish are either full or still angry, along comes the crocodile. The fish, replenished by the diet of letters, have the energy to swim away while those unfed become the crocodile's meal, usually to the delight of the player. Another amusing feature is the mystical tune from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, the audible reward for a correct choice.

Some problems arise when the keyboard choice is used. Here the child matches letters on the screen with the corresponding key. My 3.5 year old found that the Mode 5 letters did not match the keys at all. For a non-reading beginner, this is not only confusing but illogical, though with practice the child would soon learn to pair them correctly.

Generally speaking, however, the program is well-written, well-controlled and entertaining for the beginner or the reader with letter-identification problems.