LeapFrog Educational Toys and Games
LeapFrog Tag Junior Book Pal - Purple

Product Description

Tag - junior book pal purple

• Brand: LeapFrog
• Model: 22004
• Released on: 2009-06-12
• Dimensions: 10.50" h x 11.00" w x 3.31" l, 1.57 pounds

Amazon.com Review
Foster a lifelong love for reading at an early age with the LeapFrog Tag Junior Reading system. This unique reading system encourages toddlers to engage with books through music, appealing sound effects, and open-ended questions. Designed for toddlers ages two through four, the LeapFrog Tag Junior Reading system uses the touch technology to allow toddlers to interact and explore the pages of the book with a touch of the Tag Junior Book Pal. Each Tag Junior Activity book teaches a different age-appropriate skill such as sharing, counting numbers, or learning the alphabet. The Tag Junior Reading system includes one board book, and the Tag Junior Book Pal can hold audio for up to five books.

Tag Junior Book Pal (Purple) Ages: 2 to 4 years Requires: 2 "AAA" batteries (not included)

What We Think Fun factor: Durability: Educational factor: Novelty factor: The Good: Entertains toddlers while helping them learn age-appropriate skills. The Challenging: We wish the Tag Junior Book Pal was waterproof. In a Nutshell: Fosters love for books and learning through interactive songs, sound effects, and open-ended questions.

Designed for toddlers, this interactive reading system is full of fun and educational activities. View larger.

The reading system can store up to five books, which are all available for download from the LeapFrog web site. (shown in green) View larger.

Fun, Easy-to-hold Design
The LeapFrog Tag Junior Book Pal's quirky shape and animal-like appearance attracts a toddler's attention. The large knob design makes it easy for toddlers to hold it in their tiny hands. With its durable exterior, the Book Pal can withstand a toddler's rambunctious use over many years and is easy to clean with a damp cloth. The Book Pal's optical reader is cleverly tucked into the bottom portion so that fingers cannot touch the sensor. And it's simple to dust using a cotton swab. The batteries and USB port are safely stored behind a compartment that closes securely with a screw.

An additional safety feature is the battery guard strap that firmly holds the batteries in place. A volume control button with low or high settings is located above the speakers on the front side of the Book Pal, while a conveniently placed on/off button is on the side. The speakers provide good, clear sound with little distortion. As a battery-saving feature, the Book Pal will turn off automatically after a period of inactivity.

The Tag Junior Reading system comes with one Activity Storybook. Its colorful illustrations and interesting narrative will appeal to young children while the thick, durable board book construction is made to last.

Advice for parents: keep food and beverages away from Tag Junior Book Pal as any spills could cause it to malfunction.

Exploration with Every Touch
The Tag Junior Reading System can engage toddlers for hours. By simply touching the Book Pal to a Tag Junior Book, children hear one of 130 responses or 24 book-based play activities. The responses can be songs, interesting sound effects, open-ended questions, amusing sentences, or reading aloud the text.

Children can spend hours playing and exploring the different responses on every corner of the book. In many cases, they'll hear different responses when they touches the same spot in a book. The variety and randomness of the responses will keep their interest and initiate exploring the book over and over again.

Store up to Five Books
It's easy to use the LeapFrog Connect application that allows you to download audio to the Tag Junior Book Pal by connecting the USB cable (included) to a computer. Each book is centered on an important skill for toddlers to learn. Parents can print activity sheets, such as coloring pages, from the LeapFrog Connect site for additional activities and learning. You can also personalize the Tag Junior Reading System with your child's name so the Book Pal will incorporate his/her name into its greeting and farewell phrases.

One drawback: in order to download the Book Pal's audio feature, you will need a computer that has 256MB of RAM and 300MB of free disk space. However, the download process is straightforward and the additional resources on the LeapFrog connect site are well worth it.

What's in the Box
One LeapFrog Junior Book Pal, one Leap Frog Tag Junior book, Instruction book, USB cable.

From the Manufacturer
A love of books starts long before children can read ¿ and its benefits can last a lifetime. Using the same amazing touch technology as the Tag Reading System, the Tag Junior book pal is designed to encourage toddlers' natural desire to explore, while int

Customer Reviews

A great TAG reader for tots
Ok, first off a comparison to it's big papa, the Tag Sr., which I also own. After the comparison I will list a brief pro's and con's list for the people who just NEED to skim through a review:

Regarding the reader itself (the pen thing on the Tag and the little alien thing on the Tag Jr.):
- Tag Jr. is way better for little hands, it's little "head" fits perfectly into my 2yr old's tiny grip.
- It seems to be a lot sturdier, my son has drops it once and again onto our (carpeted) floors and this little guy just rolls with the punches, literally.
- The Tag has a little pencil-like thingie at the bottom that activates the camera, whereas the Tag Jr. has a small circular butt, overall it helps make it much more resilient to falls and the accidental (or are they?) "slams-it-down" on the book mishaps during particularly exciting pages.
- The purple one is really pink, so keep that in mind if you're particular about your boy playing with pink toys (also, get your head outta the gutter).

PROS:
- It's a great fit for little hands.
- Feels sturdy and durable.
- The camera activator is much better designed for the coordination-impaired.
- There's a list of child names on the Tag Software so the reader can greet your child by name each time you turn the device on-off.

CONS:
- Chews through batteries! The manual says not to use rechargeables, but I use them anyway, it's just a battery hog!
- This one is PINK not PURPLE, I don't mind, but maybe you don't like pink.
- You need to take off the battery cover to reach the usb slot.
- The buttons are not as easy to reach when your child is holding the device and forgets to turn it on, so he will wind up banging it on the book confused until you find the small groove the button is in.
- It seems to not work if it's not somewhat level with the book surface.

Regarding the books:
- The Tag Sr. books are regular paper books, so they tear up pretty easily. Now the Tag Jr. books are meant to be used by little ones! They're made from sturdy cardboard and (some) have pretty, vibrant colors.
- The activities on the Tar Sr. are usually started by pressing on the specific "buttons" on each page, on the Tag Jr. they are streamlined into the experience, for example, if you touch the same object a couple times it may prompt you to find and "click" on another page in the book.
- The Jr. books seem (with reason, I guess) to be much more simplistic than the Tag Sr. ones, but that means you also get much less content and much more repetition on the Jr.

Pros:
- The books are made out of durable cardboard with (sometimes) vibrant and colorful imagery.
- The stories are more simplistic and easier for a small child to get "useful learnin'" out of.
- The activities are built into the reading experience and start when the same spot in the page is tapped in repetition, they seem fun, but my child just ignores them.

Cons:
- The activities are built into the reading experience. Yes, this is also a con, because sometimes my kid just wants a sound to play again when he touches the same image twice, as it stands, he needs to cycle through the 3 or 4 different sounds (be them activities or spoken descriptions of the objects he is touching).
- The books are small, this ain't entirely a bad thing, but it unfortunately means there's less things to do on each page.
- There's too much repetition and some of the cool sound effects are hard to find and activate.

Nice to haves:

- It would be nice to have the ability to "record" a couple sentences or songs from the books in mommy's voice, which doesn't seem like would be THAT much of a problem to implement by the support team. (Yes, I'm talking to you guys! Stop playing with your Halos and your plastic guitars and get working on this!)
- Get those popular Tag Sr. brands on this thing! Toddlers enjoy Pixar too, you know.

Great purchase for my Book Worm
At 22 mos. my daughter would sit for half an hour at a time and just flip through books, so she rec'd this b-day present early. Great decision! Now instead of just flipping pages, the books engage her and are encouraging learning. I heard her saying some of her alphabets with the ABC book! She loves this toy and asks for it frequently, not to mention it's compact size makes it great for road trips and for restaurant waiting.

It's durability is being greatly tested and so far so good! We've had it a month and it's been dropped multiple times on our wooden floors and slammed on the pages frequently while learning the concept of gentle. I would highly recommend the case for convenience. It's so much easier to carry than loose books and a small Jr. I also store him in it when not in use which keeps everything together and handy. Highly recommend this product if your child loves books; Tag Jr. enhances that experience.

DD loves it!
My 2 year old DD loves this toy! She has thrown it and it still works. It's very cute. Love the books too.