Review: Scooby-Doo Shiny Spooky Knights for the Tag Reading System

Written on Apr 16, 2009 by Brian and filed under LeapFrog, Reviews

Recently LeapFrog launched three new books for the Tag Reading System. Scooby-Doo Shiny Spooky Knights offers what you’d expect from this crew, lots of mis-understandings, Scooby Snacks and the requisite trip to the kitchen for Shaggy and Scooby.

Scooby Doo is designed for kids age 5-7, which gets up to the older end of the spectrum for this system. Many of the books are designed for younger kids, so having something to grow with is nice. Scooby focuses on these key learning areas:

• Identifying parts of a castle
• Understanding feelings and emotions
• Identifying plot elements and setting
• Question words

The story starts out as the crew drives down a deserted road in the Mystery Machine. Unfortunately the van breaks down and the gang has to hike to find a phone so they can call a tow truck. As they approach what they think is a house, a spooky castle appears. They end up in the castle where vampires, Knights, witches, mummies and other such creatures reside. Scooby and Shaggy spend a good portion of the story running away from most of these guys, then end up saving their friends from what appears to be danger. In the usual Scooby twist, it turns out to be a costume party and the continuously hungry Scooby gets a piece of cake in the end.

The story’s audio track runs about 7 minutes and 20 seconds. Of course kids may have the pages read individually as well, or they can read on their own, using the Tag reader to help them with specific words. Throughout the story there are 15 reading comprehension games, which is a game for every set of pages but one. There are also two learning games at the end which focus on the series of events in the story and castle knowledge.

I have to say, the castle game at the end is a pretty good challenge. Most of us know the basics, like moat and drawbridge, but don’t be surprised when your kids need help remembering what the bartizan is or the difference between a keep and a turret. Scooby-Doo is designed for kids 5-7 and it shows. The story is a lttle more advanced in terms of content and the games, both in-story and at the end, require a good memory. 

The story isn’t going to be for everyone, a few of the 5-6 year-olds we tested with were a bit intimidated by the story, though there’s nothing terribly scary, the concepts of ghosts, mummies and the like may not be something all kids respond well to. But the story is well-done and there’s a lot in this book to explore with, in terms of the in-story games and the learning games at the end. Overall, we like seeing LeapFrog offer more content for older kids in the Tag Reading System target age group and think any kids who like Scooby and/or castles will enjoy this book.

Have a comment about this article? Leave a comment in the KidsTechReview.com forums.