Sherston/Oxford continue their successful Oxford Reading Tree series with Stage 4 Talking Stories. Sherston are to be congratulated on making CD ROMs which load and run automatically on any type of computer. This disc keeps to the familiar format: there are six books to choose from, and each page is presented on screen with text and a picture. A ‘pair of glasses’ icon makes something happen, an ‘ear’ icon reads the page out loud. Any word can be read by clicking on it with the mouse. The stories are read clearly and well by actors, and provide a very useful group activity for the Literacy Hour. The program comes with a useful booklet of activities, written with good literacy teaching in mind. Each book also has a set of activities on screen. These are a little over-described by the computer’s voice, but they do provide useful reinforcement activities in the context of the books.

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