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Miss Spider�s Tea Party By Pam Gleichman Tribune Media Services Miss Spider's Tea Party CD-ROM, based on the best-selling series "Miss Spider's Tea Party" books by David Kirk, lets you help your favorite arachnid throw a tea party. Activities organized in eight fun-filled games, help you increase color, sound, and shape identification, enhance coordination and basic motor skills and increase vocabulary. Miss Spider's friends want to attend her tea party, but they each have a problem that needs to be resolved. It's up to you to play the games and help all the friends make it to the party. The opening screen shows Miss Spider at her table with eight empty seats. The invited guests appear at the bottom of the screen. As you succeed with an activity, guests are shown at the table. The Bees, for example, want to attend Miss Spider's party, but they have to pollinate flowers. Each bee has a flower in mind. You must choose the flower the bees are thinking of so that they can finish pollinating and go to the party. The Crickets also want to attend. They, however, need to form a band. To help them, you are asked to match each musical sound to its instrument. When you match the whole band, the band plays a tune and heads for the party. Each game has three levels of difficulty and can be saved to play at a later time. Miss Spider's Tea Party is a delightful program. Although most of our testers were not familiar with the characters, they loved the games. Given the difficulty levels, the program works well for 3 year olds as well as 6 year olds. Kids were motivated to finish each activity in order to see the guest sitting at the table. Publisher : Simon & Schuster Interactive, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020 (212) 698-7000, http://www.simonandschuster.com/interactive/ . Category : Early Learning. Age : 3 to 7. Installation : Easy. Use : Easy. Graphics : The graphics are beautiful 3-D images with good animation. Written Materials : Written materials are included on the CD jacket. System Requirements : Windows 95/98-Pentium 133 MHz or better, 16 MB RAM, SVGA Video Card with 256 colors, SVGA monitor 640 x 480 resolution, 4X CD ROM drive, Windows compatible sound card and speakers, printer (Recommended) Macintosh � Power Macintosh, System 7.5 and higher, 16 MB RAM, 8 MB free, 640 x 480/256 colors monitor, 4X CD-ROM drive, printer (Recommended). Tested Version : Windows 95/98/Macintosh. Cost : $ 19.95. Rating : Four stars. Miss Spider's Tea Party is a delightful program, which young children will enjoy playing. DEAR PAM : I have a 14-year-old grandson. I would like to buy him some software for the Christmas, but do not want anything violent. What do you recommend? DEAR READER : Pandora's Box by Microsoft (800-426-9400) offers visual teaser puzzles. Also from Microsoft is Midtown Madness, which has players driving through the streets of Chicago. My favorite is RollerCoaster Tycoon from Hasbro. You create and manage your own amusement park. You did not mention whether he had a Macintosh or PC. All of these selections are for the PC. WEB SITE OF THE WEEK STAR CHEFS http://www.starchefs.com You'll find recipes from great chefs at this site. The site features menus from top names like Paul Pudhomme and Emeril Lagasee. There is also a special section with Kids recipes, cooking with your kids, setting the table, holiday tips and more. You can even post your resume for culinary job seekers. RATING KEY : ***** � Outstanding; **** � Very Good; *** � Good; ** � Fair; * � Not Worth Purchasing. Pam Gleichman welcomes questions/comments from readers. Write to Pam at Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Send e-mail to [email protected] . © 1999 Tribune Media Services, Inc. Techno file index Mail Tribune Copyright © The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA