American Girls Premiere 2nd Edition, 1998

 

Introduction:

 

      Girls who own at least one of the 6 American Girl dolls and who have read the 36  related books will probably enjoy getting  this CD-ROM program.  Whether they will like using it is another question.  It is aimed at girls aged from 8 to 12.  It comes with an American Girls cap as well as a pack of trading cards.  It purports to be an educational disk teaching children about 6 periods of history as well as introducing them to various aspects of dramatic production.  It also claims it will enhance writing skills and kindle children’s imagination.

 

System Requirements and Instalation: 

 

      It requires 8 MB RAM and needs at least a 256 color display and a double speed CD-ROM drive.   It needs PC 486 or higher  and Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 on a PC.  A MAC  must be 68030 or higher with System 7.1 or higher.

     

      The program is easily installed and there is a cute on-line tutorial which in the friendly voice of a young girl explains how to produce a show.  The explanation emphasizes the special effects possibilities, but it also shows how to get minimal suggestions for plots.

 

Review: 

 

      Basically, the program allows the user to select one of the 6 main characters from the books and a supporting cast for that girl’s character.  These characters are set in a choice of scenes from the main character’s books.  The user is allowed to put in a selection of historically appropriate props and music related to that period.  Each user is supposed to write dialog for the characters and select from a small array of movements which the characters can perform in order to make a play.   Then after adding, sound and lighting effects, the play may be viewed.

 

      In theory this might be creative and fun.  However, there is no real explanation of how one writes dialog.  The girls I saw using it were unable to write any lines related to the time periods even though all the girls had read the books.  The lines they were able to write were spoiled by the way in which the program read the lines; all characters used the same robotic voice with no inflection, concern for punctuation or any hint of meaning.  The movements were equally robotic and unable to forward any plot line.  This occurred even in the sample plays produced by the program.   The children all quickly grew bored. 

 

Reviewer:

 

Nancy Gilbert

Librarian, Metz Elementary School

Austin, Texas