Very little in this world is as wondrous to behold as a child's imagination. This is a vital part in developing the intellect during the formative years. The Learning Company, producers of many stimulative products such as their classic Oregon Trail, has released another great creativity program on CD-ROM for girls 8-12 years old called "American Girls". Kids love to play act and American girls provides the means for young girls to stage their own show within a historical era setting. There is a tremendous range of versatility provided, ranging from an almost "canned" set of events and characters to the child' s nearly full participation by setting the scenes, casting the characters, costuming and even doing the speaking parts. The American Girls is a multi media product with wonderful audio and visual effects. It is based upon the American Girls Collection from Pleasant Company, a line of books, dolls and activities that enhances girls' pride in and understanding of the role of females in American history.

For the PC, the minimum system requirements are: 486, Windows 3.1/95/98, 8 MB RAM, 256-color SVGA display, sound card, mouse, printer, 2X CD-ROM drive and a microphone. The program will also run on a McIntosh. There were no problems installing it on my Pentium 233 running under Windows 98. Inserting the CD in the drive started the AutoPlay, and the on screen instructions were simple and clear.

The program concept centers about the creation of a stage play right on the screen, featuring one of six central characters from different stages of American history. These are:
Felicity........Colonial America, 1774
Josefina.......America's New Mexican Frontier, 1824
Kirsten........Pioneer America, 1854
Addy..........Civil War America, 1864
Samantha.....America's New Century, 1904
Molly..........World War Two America, 1944

To start things of, select one of the six characters from the main menu. The stage then appears, and you get to arrange the set on this Play Creation screen. All the required buttons and controls are clearly displayed. The buttons are Sets, Props, Characters, Actions, Dialog, Lights. Sound Effects, Music and Perform.

The Sets button allows selection of one of the 12 available interior or exterior sets for each time period. The Props button gives a choice props, such as household items. The Character button allows selection of characters and costumes. Actions presents a choice of 16 actions and emotions per character. Dialog gives the choice of recording your own voice or using the prepared scripts. The Lights button permits a choice of stage lighting. Sound Effects offers six sound categories with dozens of choices. Music features five categories of music and ten musical themes. Perform starts the play action.

The Director Controls look very much like VCR controls and they enable the timing of key events. There is a counter to help you time events and keep track of the length of the play. There are controls for Edit, Play, Rewind, Beginning/End of scene, Fast Forward and Pause.

The created play may be saved for subsequent viewing or editing such as adding/deleting scenes, changing script and so forth. You may print selected scenes or even create playbills for the production.

The play creation process uses the point and click technique, so in actuality it is much easier to actually do than it sounds. I tried this out with my granddaughters, ages 6 and 10, and they readily fell right into the spirit of things. In fact it was difficult to get them to give it up at bedtime. They did not need or even want any help.

There is a database available to allow the Producer/Director to research the historical era depicted. This is a great tool for teaching the value of research and even providing the impetus to use other sources.

For those into counting, there are 6 main characters, 72 sets, 150 props, 66 costars, 54 historical costumes, 16 actions and emotions per character, 300 musical selections, over 250 sound effects and 24 lighting effects.

The learning experience with the American Girls is much more than the historical aspects. In setting up the stage play, organizational skills are brought to bear as well as well as the concepts of planning and execution. System interrelationships are used as well as the effects of timing. This is really a management-training tool also.

All this is readily available at your neighborhood computer store for an estimated street price of $35. And there is more, the product is packaged in a special Tin container, reminiscent of a cookie container. The package also includes a baseball cap and a set of trading cards. This will make a wonderful Christmas or special occasion gift for young girls on your shopping list. You can rest assured that you will be giving them countless hours of pleasurable, wholesome, entertaining and educational experiences.



Recommended: Yes