• Embark on an adventure to Smuggler's Cove.
• Uncover pieces of 3 mysterious treasure s.
• Search out hidden treasures.
• Solve riddles at unique locations.
• Use critical thinking skills.

Product description ------------------- Join a scavenger hunt by solving picture riddles in various locations around the seaside town of Smuggler's Cove. As you unravels the riddles, you'll find pieces to an old pirate's treasure . The presents yet another puzzle, which you must solve before finding the riches. .com ---- Pirate's plunder rewards players who discover all of the hidden objects and decipher the riddles in I Treasure Hunt. But there's also a bounty of booty on the path to that treasure as players discover this captivating world where closer inspection invariably reveals a new surprise. This program is based on the award-winning I books written by Jean Marzollo and photo-illustrated by Walter Wick. From the very beginning, this program immerses players, just as the books do: as a train pulls into the station in the town of Smuggler's Cove, the point-of-view is from inside the passenger car, looking out the window. Once off the train, this quaint seaside town with a secret is yours to explore. Potential riddle spots reveal themselves when a cursor sweep causes an object to respond with movement and sound. A tackle box, a deserted ruin, and a lighthouse are just a few of the 20 spots ripe for discovery. Scenes change swiftly, considering the vast a of detail each contains. When explorers find a riddle area, a cluttered panorama appears onscreen and a child's voice reads the sentence below that always begins with the phrase "I ...." Then players must find and click on the objects listed in the sentence. This isn't as easy as it seems; for example, finding three "fours" sounds simple, right? But the task gets complex when one numeral is hidden in the grain of a wooden op, the other is written out in letters on a menu, and the third is a pair of dice showing a three and a one. Successfully finding all the "I " items in a scene yields a scrap of a treasure . But building the doesn't automatically reveal the treasure--that'd be out of keeping with this game's complex character. There are three different treasure-hunting scenarios, and each requires gathering a completely different set of clues around the town of Smuggler's Cove. The attention to detail that the books are famous for is abundantly present here: sound permeates the different "sets," from waves breaking on the shore, to the slow tick of a clock in the general store. Find and click on a skull-and-crosss--it scowls and growls. Find and click on an oil lamp--it flares up briefly and then goes out with a delicate puff of smoke. And no, you can't cheat by just holding down the mouse button and scanning over a picture hoping to hit a required item. I Treasure Hunt is a wonderfully absorbing program that slyly sneaks in a vast a of learning. ping, reading, rhyming, and problem solving occur incidentally as players are drawn into the mysteries of Smuggler's Cove. And it's the only program we've ever encountered that elegantly illustrates that "four" and "4" and "." + "..." all equal the same thing. (Ages 6 to 10) --Anne Erickson