Toddler Review: Leapfrog Tag Junior Book Pal
Alas, I have no spawn of my own. So when LeapFrog mailed their new Tag Junior, a handheld device that reads special LeapFrog books to children, I had to call in the big guns for the review. Err…little guns.
My 18 month old niece Rysa (with the help of her mother Katharyn Wheeler) put the Tag Junior through the paces. Their collaboration:
Tag Junior ‘book pal’
Let’s just say that the Tag Junior looks a bit like an alien, a happy alien, but an alien nonetheless. It was actually difficult to keep the reviewer interested in the book because the Tag Junior book pal was so interesting in comparison.
By touching the pal to pictures throughout the pages, everything from animal sounds to the specific names of colours play back on the pal’s speaker. The audio quality is pretty decent for such a small device, and all voices are clearly audible.
The biggest problem with the book pal is that the power button is available to the child. The second biggest problem is that the power button makes noise when it is turned on and off. Subsequently, the reviewer was far more interested in turning the button on and off than touching the Tag Junior to the page.
The third biggest problem is that the pal is set to read through a whole passage when touched to any word on a page. This feature is great in the entry-level Curious George colour Fun book where there is one word a page, but proves detrimental in more advanced books that hold up to four lines of text on each page.
Beyond the one bundled book you get with the Tag Junior, each additional book requires you to update the Tag’s software via a PC/Mac and USB. This is a simple process, but it requires some preplanning. The reviewer that was so excited seeing the Curious George book was disappointed in having to wait to look at it with the book pal since it wasn’t preinstalled. Luckily, once all these books are installed to the pal, the reviewer was able to switch between books at will—every book is loaded at once.
LeapFrog makes use of PC syncing in one other notable way: Once the book pal has been connected it uploads information onto LeapFrog’s site to help you monitor your child’s activity. The site shows the amount of time spent with the Tag, which books were read, and which skills accomplished. These tools are far beyond what any other toy/learning tool manufacturer is doing right now.
And by far the cutest function is that you can personalise the book pal so that it uses the name of the child each time it powers on (and for names not available you can set a nickname such as “little monkey”).
Overall, the reviewer liked the book pal and loved the books themselves. She cried when they were taken away from her.
Formfactor Fits Perfectly In Little Hands
Online Progress Monitoring Is Excellent
The Books Themselves Are Entertaining
You Need to Sync Every Book to PC
Power Button Too Prominent/Enticing
Children Might Cry When Pal Is Taken Away
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
For crissakes, folks. Read a book to your kids now and then!
Fractal the Meek
@T-Will: I kinda did. We called her "mom."
Fractal the Meek
@tok3ninja: More like the opposite effect. They'll be deathly quiet... Oh wait.
@lostarchitect: Do you mean like when the parents leave the room and it tells cute little girls to do REDRUM? That kinda wrong?
@jerrymedina: No, thats Raadah Raadah.
@manywaters: quiet, monkey.
Didn't Howard Cosell's career get wrecked when he referred to a football player as a little monkey?
manywaters
i think these things are bad. but i don't know why. something is just wrong about it.
@tande04: wtf, ,e too. My mom used to call me that all the time. Just don't try to use it in south carolina....it means something else.
Argh, creepy thing with a book. Nightmares...oh the nightmares.
@Toastie: Paranoid Android?
telepheedian
@misterWho3GS: Hey at least it didnt use the term Macaca. Ask George Allen how that worked out for him.
MorganRW
@Hello Mister Walrus: You have to dropkick for the full effect.
It's like Speak & Learn except without the barcodes & creepy synth voice.
dingus
@Nick: Get 'em started early. Good choice.
@misterWho3GS: I used to always call little kids that.
Until I got really dirty looks one time and looked into it some.
I don't do it so much anymore.
tande04
@Rabid Penguin: Hey they have this stuff now called Adderall which should help with that A.D.D.
Actually it's kind of interesting that the first three letter of the drug also correspond with the 'disease' (and I use that word loosely) it's intended to treat...
@Rabid Penguin: might be his niece. could be wrong though.
I say skip the tag junior and go directly to the main tag system, my 2 year old loves it and it will last much longer as well.
lucidlyseen
@Nick: hmmm, that is re-gifted
Nick
i re-gifter a knife set to my niece for her birthday. she's three and i think it's about time she learned how to make her way 'round a kitchen.
Nick
Just got one of these as a gift for my nephew. Note that it says it is for age 2-4, so it might be a little out of range for an 18 month old. My nephew is 3, so he's right in the middle of that. Plus he's got the gift receipt and can always switch to the Tag Sr. (age 4-6) if he's feeling advanced.
MykePagan
@Kaiser-Machead: I just kick them over. It seems to work equally well.
Hello Mister Walrus
Did he just call my daughter a little monkey? Oh no he didn't!
@Vivara: I know. A fact that I had forgotten by the third paragraph. And int my defense, other than the very final sentence, the second paragraph is the shortest one... so I didn't think it important to memorize. Yeah... that's it...
@Twoje: lol
Chowder?
@Toastie: The speak and spell sounded so creepy...
Give me Teddy Ruxpix over this new-fangled crap any day!
Reading to your child is one of the best things you can do for them, and for you. It promotes bonding and intelligence. This takes things a little further, and empowers kids to allow them to do it on their own, helping them with something that is SO coveted by children, independence. It wont ever take the place of reading to them, but its great in other ways. Win/win.
@Rabid Penguin: It's his eighteen month old niece, Rysa, as he staes in the second paragraph.
Ed.
Vivara
A minus? Muahaha!
Kaiser-Machead
I wish it sounded like a speak 'n spell. That way I could lay back in nostalgia as kids used it around me.
@Rabid Penguin: RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE
Twoje
@Rabid Penguin: She's his niece.
T-Will
I wish I had something like this when I was a kid!
T-Will
@Rabid Penguin: That's his niece.
Matingmonkey is a proud eMac owner
@Rabid Penguin: Nevermind. I'm tired. Leave me alone. Stop yelling at me!!!!
Is that your kid Mark? Or are those stock photos?