Young children love going to parties and with the help of this new interactive CD-ROM, they can now go to a fun party with the likes of Goldilocks, Humpty Dumpty and Little Bo Peep. Based on Janet and Allan Ahlberg's best-selling story books, The Jolly Postman's Party is packed with games and activities to keep children (aged four to eight years) happily entertained for hours. They can create joke pictures of themselves and their friends and sign them into a guest book. Bake cakes by clicking on the right ingredients. There is also an opportunity to play testing memory games. When the lights go out in a room, you have to remember where the objects were and when they come back on again, click on the ones that have moved from their original positions. This is an ambitious CD-ROM with enchanting illustrations. Probably one of the most entertaining games is helping the Jolly Postman to burst balloons with his catapult so he can find the letters hidden inside. Compared to other children's software, The Jolly Postman's Party is a bit difficult to install and some of the games are fairly complicated. But you can adjust the levels to make them easier and there is plenty of good technical support available if you do get stuck. [+]

The Encyclopedia of Animals and Nature proves useful for both browsing and research. On the research side, there is a database of 700 animal species. When you look UP one animal you get pictures, sometimes movies, and descriptive text. There is also usually a link to a related creature. Look up Heron, for example, and you can link straight into the Cattle Egret, and from there to the Bittern. You can find out where the Heron (or any other animal) fits in the overall classification system of animals, and also take a look at other elements of the bigger picture such as continental drift, the effects of Ice Ages, on the current locations of the world's wildlife, world climate and other factors. Bioramas are great for browsing through. These are 360 degree panoramas, covering 13 different habitats from tundra to savanna, desert to rainforest. As you move around them animals that live in the habitat become visible, and a quick click takes you to the information screen where you can learn more about them. No CD ROM like this would be complete without a quiz, and in this case your job is to answer multiple choice questions to try and beat the high score of the current leader-Charles Darwin. [+]

Pulsars, quasars, the patterns that galaxies make across the known universe-it's only in a 3D format like this that astronomical concepts like these truly come to life. Like its cousin product Earth 3D, The Cosmos 3D is a nifty digital collection of animations and printable illustrations and text resources on everything from the Earth and the Solar System to galaxies. Often reminiscent of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, the animations are accompanied by voiceovers and music-they are at once beautiful and informative. If you're less of a cosmological aesthete, you'll prefer the comprehensive dictionary of astronomical terms, its powerful search function, and the encyclopedia-like database of cross-referenced articles. Possibly the best feature of the package is the Star Navigator that displays the night-time sky from Earth, adjusting for seasonal variations. Caveats: The interface is at times clunky. Also, some of the language on the packaging and in the Install Shield dialog boxes is gibberish because Glaskar skimped on its German-to-English translations. Rest assured, however, that once installed the articles in the product itself are well-written and clear, with high school seniors or college freshmen as the target audience. Overall, this is a fun and educational item-great for learning, reference, or indoor star gazing on a cloudy night. -Erik Macki, amazon. [+]

The King and I Animated Thinking Adventure is packed with eight different games and puzzles designed to challenge both pre-schoolers and early-elementary students. Filled with animated characters from the popular musical-and centreed around the Royal Palace in Siam-these activities focus on skills such as problem solving, creative design and deductive reasoning. In one most unusual game, Tusker and Moonshee's Fruit Lunch, there's an early introduction into observable physics, where your child has to decide how hard and high to throw different pieces of fruit. In Tuptim's Mixed-up Music, enjoyable experiments in music and tune-matching memory games supply hours of toe-tapping fun. Each activity has adjustable skill levels, fabulous 3-D graphics and surprising clickables to keep kids coming back for more. There's even a print shop, with cards, flyers and certificates that make great take-along colouring books. The remarkable variety in this disc is sure to keep young movie fans playing, learning and singing along with Anna and the King. -Jill Lightner, Amazon. com.