Leapfrog Leapreader Reading and Writing System (Green)

Eleven books with the reader.I bought this to take to my son and I am happy I bought it when the price had decreased. I so strongly believe it will help him to learn to read. I absolutely recommend this reading tool for children with difficulty reading.

I purchased the Leapreader when my little boy was just 3 and it has been just brilliant. I wasn't sure if it would just be a novelty that would soon lose interest but I liked the concept of using real books rather than a Leappad tablet. At 3 1/2 he was able to use the audiobook function in the car on long journeys and with a bit of guidance quickly learned to touch the pictures of his favourite characters (Disney Pixar Cars book) to hear the sounds. The books entertained him for months. The only issue we had was that he pressed too hard and scratched the pages so I stuck some Sugru on the end of the pen then removed it once his skills improved. I agree with other reviewers that the software isn't great - struggled to install it, it only worked on our Windows 7 machine, and it's very slow to use. Also books can be difficult to source, they can be very expensive in some cases and my boy only uses the Leapreader occasionally by himself.That being said, despite the expense I absolutely love the Leapreader. The 5 stars are for being the best resource for starting to teach him basic reading skills now he's a year older. I bought the Learn To Read vowel book sets and we sit together and he tries to sound out simple 3 letter words then we use the pen to see if he's correct and to explore the sounds. Some of the books also make him laugh and he likes the puzzles at the end. I'm so glad I bought the Leapreader and have no regrets.Update: At 6 years old he can actually read all his Leapreader books but still enjoys using them with the pen when he wakes up very early to keep himself entertained in the early hours. The puzzles in the back of the vowel reading books are his favourites. His letter and number formation is a bit sloppy still so I am using the writing books with Mr Pencil to help him improve. He also really enjoys the audiobooks with his headphones on - they are a great introduction to longer story CDs that he isn't ready for yet but will be in the future. It is still a fantastic resource for us.

*Please note this review is very long*I purchased the Leapreader pen about two years ago. Infuriatingly as other reviewers have commented I too had a faulty pen that would not connect or download any of the many books I had purchased to go with it. Leapfrog were useless and in the end it went in the bin and I had a very unhappy little boy and a bunch of useless books.However, I recently came across it again before Christmas on Amazon at the price of £19.99 and decided I'd bite the bullet and give it one last go.Originally I had issues with connection and the Leapfrog connect software being slow and temperamental but after removing my Antivirus software which was what I believe to be causing conflicting issues with the Leapfrog software I managed to download the books on to the pen with no issues at all. I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the functions of the pens and the amount you can do with them. Children can have the whole story read to them, highlight single words at a time to be spoken to them so they can see how they are pronounced and can play games. As well as the books you can also download music and fun facts from the Leapfrog app store. Since I had my last Leapreader pen they've brought out different activity packs such as the human body, solar system and animal packs which are absolutely Fab! Was well worth the hassle and the wait as I now have a worth while reading tool to help my 6 year old who struggles with reading and writing and finds it's very hard to engage in anything remotely educational.

Bought for my child who just turned 4. You will need more books. The book that is included in the box isn't very good at all - it's like a miniature catalogue of everything else that's available although does entertain them for a short time. I bought alongside the human body set. Already had a lot of use and my son has learned a lot about the human body and has learned a new range of vocabulary. He seems to enjoy doing the tests. I have bought the world map and a couple of regular books to go alongside this for christmas.I have only given 4 stars as the pen seems to take such a long time to charge. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but when I plug it in the pen automatically turns on in play mode. I switch it off so only the orange light is showing. The leapfrog software tells me this light will go green when it's fully charged... I've still yet to see it turn green despite charging it for approx 6 hours. It seems it doesn't charge fully as my son only gets about half an hours use before it needs charging again. It's a bit of a pain when you have a young child eager to play with it! I think I'd prefer rechargable batteries as with the tag system.

I bought this for my four year old to help get him interested in words and reading. Unfortunately it hasn't really done the trick but I am not sure if that is just down to his temperament because I think the technology is brilliant.The books are very interactive and you can use the reader to read them in a variety of different ways to help with word recognition, blending and just for pure entertainment. Most of the pictures can be clicked on to make noises or comments from the characters. There are also games and some songs contained within the books.The book that comes with it is pretty rubbish - its basically just a big advert for all the other books and writing paper you can buy. If you buy this for a child I definately recommend buying one of the books or activity sets at the same time so they can get the most from it straight away.I do think the RRP is quite expensive but I would say its a good purchase if you pay betwee £20 - £30. Please bear in mind that the books that go with this product are quite expensive which is the main reason I have only given it 4 stars.