LeapFrog LeapReader Reading and Writing System

The reviews are a bit mixed and I think that's understandable because there are times it's hard to get the device to do what you want. But it *is* possible to do what it advertises and it's really fantastic when it works, and once you have it configured it works fabulously well and your child is basically never forced to confront any of the frustration from the platform, so I won't deduct any stars for that. I'll try to break it down but will start by just saying that my 5-year-old daughter has used this for a little over a year and she LOVES it.The books have very small dot patterns embedded throughout the images on all the pages. The pen is "loaded" with data for various books and when it knows what book it's looking at, it knows what the dot pattern for that book means and it reads, from the page, whatever it's instructed to do. This might be: read the story, read a word the child taps the pen on, play a game (e.g. identify something of a color, find an emotion, find an object, do some math). There is really a *lot* of interactivity with the books through the story and games that you get with this platform.But if you don't have the book on the pen, the pen will tell the child to ask a parent to update the pen with the book. This is where it gets challenging because the software just doesn't work very well. I use it with Windows and sometimes the device isn't recognized by Windows, or the LeapFrog software can't seem to talk with the pen, or it's hard to navigate through the LeapFrog software to find the books to load onto the pen. This is (thankfully) rare, though, and the pen has reasonable capacity to store a lot of books (I have 10-20 on mine or so) and once it's set, it's ready to interact with your whole library. I think all of the frustration with this platform is in this process.Three other things I'll mention.1) As other reviewers have said, there are some backward compatibility issues, I guess. I haven't encountered this. I originally got an older generation pen from a used kid stuff sale before I bought one of these pens (eventually I got too many books for that very-old pen to store). I fully believe this is an issue for some books + pens because I've read about it multiple times, but it's never impacted me.2) People ask "why can't they just put all the books on the pens?" but the answer is kinda obvious if you think about attempting to support that kind of business. There are tons of books you'll never see or care about and it doesn't really make sense to build in storage for a full library of everything. And the library expands, so if you buy a pen today and a new Disney movie comes out tomorrow that your kid wants the book for, you'd be out of luck if they tried to design it this way. ("Why can't they just support MicroSD and put a proprietary format file on the card for the book?" would be an EXCELLENT question, though...)3) The books are ridiculously expensive and you almost definitely should not buy one new. Go to your local GoodWill / Salvation Army and you'll find some here and there.

Update in 2020:I ***would*** like to purchase one of these for each of my niece/nephews as this has best learning toy we've found so far. This is especially since all parents of little kids right now are looking for screen free activities to engage their kids during COVID lockdown!!!Unfortunately, leapfrog is no longer supporting products for this pen. So you can't easily purchase the books/activities that go with the leapreader. So frustrating! I know they have a new "pen" called LeapStart Go, but my impression from briefly looking at reviews of that product suggest it's just not the same. The leap reader is completely screen free and encourages a lot of interaction with books (even for kids as small as 3.5 years old).==========old review=============We have used leapreaders in our house for approx three years now. The oldest one I had finally gave out b/c the optical scanner malfunctioned. Even so, I think it's a great value and I purchased new ones for both kids. (And really, I cannot blame the company, my kid was NOT particularly careful with his LR).******Why do I love it? It's a great way to keep young kids entertained without the use of a screen!!!******You can download audiobooks and music via their stand alone computer based app. My older kid (approx 5 yrs) listened to a geronimo stilton mouse mystery on constant repeat during our last car trip and it kept him very engaged. (we had to beg him to listen to a stink and a junie B jones story to give us a break sometimes). My younger kid (approx 3) listened to a laurie berkener song on constant repeat during that same car trip.Of course, it is not just a mini MP3 player for kids. The interactive books you purchase are GREAT, it's not just about having the pen "read the book" for your kids. Each page of the books is interactive, so when your child touches an image there will be a corresponding sound or dialogue. It really brings books to life for them. Furthermore, there are great games/activities in some of the sets, we particularly like the body board "book" that includes a fun song about brushing your teeth and a game naming different parts of the body. Pretty much every book has an activity associated with it - for instance the beginning reader books have activities that help them with phonetics.PLEASE EVERYONE LET LEAPFROG KNOW THAT THEY ARE BEING SHORT SIGHTED. I believe the company is focusing their efforts on tablets, which makes sense market-share-wise. But they could also provide the leapreader as a choice for discerning parents that are looking for screen substitutes. Right now I've decided to stockpile leapreader supplies in case they get harder to find in the future. Keep supporting the leapreader please!!!!!! Our family LOVES them! I want to be able to give them as gifts for nieces and nephews, but it's hard to do when I'm not sure about the future of the product! (you know, since some of them are still infants).