TOS Crew Review - BrillKids Aesop's Fables Volume 1

The Aesop Fables BrillKids Reader’s that we got in the mail were an instant hit in our house. We are a house of book lovers in this house and it is always exciting when my girls get a chance to see new books, but we were especially pleased with when we got these Little Reader Storybook Series, Aesop's Fables, Volume 1. They are simplified and illustrated versions of the traditional Aesop's Fables, and the book formats are "specially designed to give your child all the fun of storybook time, while also teaching your child to read".

Currently sale priced at $37.50 (reduced from $50!) the series of 5 familiar titles is available for purchase here. This includes:

• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
• The Turtle and the Rabbit
• The Fox and the Grapes
• The Lion and the Mouse
• The Fox and the Crow

The thing I really like is that BrillKids has done a truly brilliant thing with these readers.

Each book has a flap on the back cover that can be flipped down over the picture while reading the page. If you have a child who tends to look at the picture and guess at what the words say, or who memorizes the story and uses the picture as a cue to recite the words (rather than actually reading them), these might work for you. Once she reads the page, you can reveal the picture as a reward. An added bonus: you can use dry-erase markers to write on the flap (it’s glossy), and wipe it off easily. Use it to practice copying letters or words.

And, there is another really big bonus…

…the Little Reader Storybooks are compatible with the Little Reader software. When you purchase the books, you’ll receive a special code. If you own a license, you’ll be able to download animated audiobook versions of the books for your Little Reader software.

The book plays as a slideshow with audio, first the text page, then the accompanying picture. The pictures have little touches of animation, so it’s not like an animated film, but not a static image, either.

As you can see, the program displays the words divided by syllables (alternating red and blue syllables). This is the default. You can change it so all the syllables are one color, you can also change the colors used for the text or have it use a random color (being able to change the colors could be important for children with vision issues).

Playback is customizable in other ways too:

• set it to play through automatically or click to advance the slides
• choose whether the picture is captioned
• select the audio file for each slide
  • 3 different readers to choose from: a woman, a man, and a girl
• add your own audio files (Little Reader gives you the option of recording a new file)
• turn the pronunciation off (program then will not read the text slide)
• add your own picture or video file
• even change the text
• and more

If you set the program to not advance automatically and to not pronounce the text slides, you can have your child read each text slide aloud, and then get a treat when you advance to the picture slide and she hears the program repeat what she just read. There are lots of ways you can play around with this and make it work for you, it really is well thought out.

I really enjoyed the look of the books, the colorful illustrations, the large print with the spacing between the words and the inside flap.

To see what others from the TOS Crew are saying go here!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary set of these books for the purpose of my review as a part of the TOS Crew. The opinions expressed are my own, based on my family and I’s experience using this product.