Customer Reviews

LeapPad: Leap 1 Math - "Birthday Hunt" Interactive Book and Cartridge

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent Leap Pad Book. It's a step above Leap Goes Shopping. However, it is easy enough that my three your old can do it with a little bit of help now and then.

There are clues and they build until you have the answers you need. Each page has little games. Just like other Leap Pad books, when you touch the 'pen' to other pictures on the page you get neat sounds, music, games, etc.

I think the Leap Pad is one of the neatest items available right now. It is better than sitting your child in front of TV and entertains my kid, at least, for an hour at time.

Enjoy.

Like others have said, the main object of this book is to find the hidden clues to unlock the safe at the end with the birthday present inside. Some of the clues are really tough for the younger kids. I would say that is book is more appropriate for kids in first grade and up. Finding the clues is really easy if you can figure out the secret (the little bug, Eddison, tells you exactly where to look for the clue on each page) plus the clues are given in order on the page with the safe. Like I said, it is a bit complicated for a child in pre-school or possibly Kindergarten, but it is educational.

I'm a big fan of the Leap Pad products - and my son loves every Leap Pad book we've bought so far, including this one. We have great fun playing the games on each and every page. However, neither he nor I have been able to solve the big master surprise - and I've heard from severl friends (one who actually IS a rocket scientist) and they haven't been able to reveal all of the clues either. So while the book as a whole is still fun and educational, the missing ultimate resolution is a bit frustrating.

This leap pad book requires kids to find a secret unlabeled spot on the page to get a clue which is just a number they are told on each page. At the end they have to press the numbers in sequence to unlock a safe holding a birthday gift. Both having to press "who knows where" on the page to be told a number, and to then have to remember them all, seems terribly strange. My daughter doesn't bother with any of it. I do not recommend this book at all.

This one is more challenging than the Counting on Leap book or the even more simple Tad goes Shopping. Leap has to follow a number of clues and visit everything from a team at the park, to the junkyard to finally find his Birthday Present. There is even a maze he has to go through :-) So its a very nice activity book for a preschooler. I am personally using it for a toddler, so this book is not too useful to me yet, but my friends kids3 and up love it.

My son enjoys playing this game, although early on, his older sister helped him. Now instead of figuring things out...he has memorized where to put the pen to get the clues he needs. Still there are lots of games on each page he can explore. I read another review of lead pad products that listed the downside of duribility. I have to agree. My 5 year old boy is not gentle and the pages are thin. So far everything is in tact, but I have to monitor it's use..so independant play with it isn't an option right now.