LeapPad: Leap 2 Reading - "Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle" Interactive Book and Cartridge

Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle is part of LeapFrog’s range of interactive books designed to be used with their LeapPad learning system. The pack contains a spiral-bound book and a cartridge. Simply slot both the book and the cartridge into the appropriate areas on the LeapPad and you’re ready to start.

This particular title is recommended for children at stage 2 of the LeapPad library, which is children between 6 and 8 years old. The story itself features the popular cartoon character Scooby-Doo and his friends and is 55 pages (8 chapters) long--an ideal length for young readers starting to read by themselves. Viewers of the Scooby-Doo TV series won’t be surprised to learn that Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle closely follows the same story format. The gang is driving though a dark and stormy night (what else?) when the Mystery Machine gets a puncture. Going to the nearest house for help (which turns out to be the usual spooky Gothic mansion), the gang is invited to stay for supper by the owner, Clift Montgomery (like the actor Montgomery Clift--get it?). It turns out that Clift has recently agreed to donate the house to the local council as a museum. Their fellow dinner guests include various prominent local citizens who all have their objections to the plan. Clift’s sudden dramatic disappearance gives the gang a new mystery to solve, although as always Scooby requires bribery in the form of his favorite Scooby Snacks before he’ll join in. Naturally, when the villain is eventually unmasked, his parting riposte is, "I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those kids and their pesky dog."

The LeapPad comes with a special touch-sensitive pen--follow the story by using it to touch the words on the page. The story is read aloud by a male American voice, which can sound rather stilted during the dialogue between characters, especially Shaggy and Scooby, who have their own distinctive styles of speaking. Touch the pictures of the main characters on the first page to identify them and learn a little fact about each of them, in the authentic voices from the TV series. (Who would have guessed that Shaggy’s real name is Norville "Shaggy" Rogers?) The music used throughout the story creates a suitably spooky ambience. To hear a short synopsis of each chapter, use the pen to touch the chapter heading. By touching the pictures throughout the story, you will hear some very amusing sound effects (the wobble noise and Velma’s trademark exclamation of "Jinkies!" are particularly notable). The story contains 120 vocabulary words designed to be slightly more challenging (such as mystery, nowhere and skidded)--these are highlighted throughout the text and repeated in a glossary at the end of the book. Touch any of the glossary words and the recorded voice pronounces it correctly and offers a short definition. Comprehension and memory are tested in the Haunted Castle Challenge game, where you’re asked questions about the story and use the pen to touch the picture of the appropriate answer.

Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle is an entertaining if slightly predictable tale designed to build reading confidence. Importantly, it also encourages children to think about the meaning of words in context and tests understanding of plot and characters. --Alison Drury