This is a program designed to help kids improve their reading skills while teaching them about protecting the environment. My daughter provided significant help in reviewing this product.

Installation:  A snap through the Windows Program Manager (File/Run). Just pop the CD-ROM in the drive, run install.exe, and you're ready to go. Video and sound cards are automatically detected and configured. Installation creates a program group ("Earthcare!) with eight icons. No program files are copied to your hard disk, and very little hard disk space is required (less than 10k!!!).

Documentation:  Text files on the disk describe the installation process and provide instructions for running the program. Text files for each of the four "books" and songs are also provided.

The Product:  Earthcare Interactive! (subtitled "Read and Play for Kids") is an environmental educational tool which aims to help kids improve their reading skills by interacting with animated characters. The program contains four modules ("books") with an environmental theme: "I Love Air", "I Love Animals", "I Love Dirt", and "I Love Water". Each of the four books is narrated by children, and each sentence is highlighted as they are read. You can either have the whole book read to you, or you can pick which page you want to jump to. The musical accompaniment is pretty good. Each book contains ten pages, and each page has surprise animations to be discovered. Unfortunately, the animations don't really do much, interaction is minimal, and the graphics are disappointing in comparison to many other interactive storybooks. Each book also has an "Idea Box" with several suggestions for fun and creative things that kids can do (this was my daughter's favorite part of the program). There is also an animal alphabet module with pictures, a few animal sounds, and the alphabet song (also sung by a kid, and it's cute). Since the program runs entirely off the CD, access time on a double-speed CD-ROM can be somewhat slow.

Wayzata has a 1-800 number for technical support (hurrah!) and an Internet address (WayzataTec@aol.com).

Bottom Line:  I really wanted to like "Earthcare Interactive!". Wayzata had a great idea for this product as a fun learning tool to teach kids to respect the environment. The problem is that it is not all that interactive. Neither graphics nor animations are particularly impressive. My daughter rated it a "5" on a scale of 1 to 10; in her words, "It's OK, but it's not great." Although she enjoyed playing with it, I doubt that it has enough going for it to keep her interested for long.

System Tested On:  IBM compatible PC (Gateway 2000) with a 80486-DX2 at 66 Mhz; MS DOS 6.2 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11; 8 Mb of RAM & 420 Mb hard drive; mouse

Minimum System:  None specified, but you need at least a CD drive, sound card, Windows, and a mouse.

Wayzata Technology, 2515 East Highway 2, Grand Rapids, Minnesota  55744  (1-800-735-7321 or 218-326-0597)