Cluefinders The Incredible Toy Store Adventure Published on September 21st, 2001

This adventure finds the Cluefinders (the preteen foursome of Santiago, Joni, Owen, and Leslie) in San Francisco outside a famous toy store when Joni and Owen are mysteriously shrunken to the size of hand-held toy figurines. Leslie and Santiago scramble to reach their friends who have been deposited on the 6th floor of the now-closed store Given the small stature of two of the Cluefinders, this adventure is about finding items to build an “Unshrinker” and solving the mystery of the shrinking phenomenon. To find the “Unshrinker” parts, the miniature Joni and Owen explore their surroundings on the 6th floor and discover a magical world of animated toys and talking animals. Meanwhile, Leslie and Santiago search the rest of the floors and deal with an “elevator with an attitude”. To obtain the necessary pieces for the “Unshrinker”, players help the Cluefinders play eight different games that practice math, language arts, social studies, and science. All of the games can be played on four levels of difficulty and will automatically adjust the difficulty to meet the player’s needs. The games are novel and innovative. In one, a rat chases the shrunken Cluefinders inside pneumatic tubes. Players help navigate the Cluefinders’ course through the tubes by selecting those tubes that complete a pattern or sequence. In another game, the tiny Cluefinders secure a ride across a toy boat pond on Taxini, an opera-singing water bug. Taxini lets the Cluefinders earn their fare by helping him with his spelling. As with previous Cluefinders, there is a lot to like about this title. The intriguing story line about why the Cluefinders were shrunk slowly unfolds as children explore the title. The software keeps excellent records of the player’s achievements; and navigation throughout is easy. The title even offers closed captioning.
Summary Age  7 - 10 Platform  Windows Mac Price  $25.00 Category  Grade Specific Grade  3 - 5 ISBN  0-7630-6121-2 Company  The Learning Company (800) 543-9778 http//:www.learningco.com

The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions Published on September 21st, 2001

This newest addition to The Incredible Machine series offers players 250 new wacky puzzles. In this title, players complete contraption-puzzles to earn their “Doctorate in Contrapology.” Each contraption is presented as a puzzle with an objective, which might be as simple as helping a mouse to get to his hole or as crazy as blowing up a dam so that some alligators can swim home. To complete a contraption, players drag potential parts from a bin and place them on the contraption workspace. Some parts are traditional mechanical items like pulleys and motors, but there are also zany things like dynamite and monkey-powered treadmills. The workspace always has some unique parts already fixed in position. Players solve the puzzles by trial and error. The puzzle solutions are reminiscent of Rube Goldberg contraptions and encourage players to “think outside of the box.” This software offers an entertaining way to expose children to physics. It can present accurate physics models or weird, out-of-this world ones (such as gravity-defying balls). It has a great tutorial, puzzles in four levels of difficulty, a build your own puzzle mode, and a two-player mode for play on the computer or over the Internet. By downloading a free demo at the publisher’s website, you can get a taste of what it is like to play with these doohickeys and thing-a-ma-jigs.
Summary Age  8 - 99 Platform  Windows Mac Price  $30.00 Category  Science Grade  ISBN  Company  Sierra (800) 757-7707 http://www.evenmorecontraptions.com

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