Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This review is for; Vtech - Brilliant Creations Advanced Notebook My wife & I bought this for our young son to deter him from using our real laptop since he has a fondness for punching keyes and moving the mouse with his little fingers. Rated ages 5-8, I have to admit that I bought it for my son who is one to two years below that age group, but considering that the majority of laptops/notebooks sold for young children I've seen at local stores have monochrome LCD displays, this was the only notebook I saw that had vibrant colors that stood out over the rest. The VTech Brilliant Creations Notebook has a colorful 4.5" LCD display! An actual mouse is also included that is connected via a side port (appears to be a phone-jack type port that only accepts the included mouse & nothing else). An animated, talking Penguin appears frequently during most of the animated menus. As advertised it has over 120 functions for young children as it claims although my child & I are still counting. Functions include learing ABC's with sounds (phonics)for each letter and not one, but two word examples for most letters are presented although some word examples seem odd. For example the letter "M" is represented by monkey which is OK (a cute, animated monkey that chirps appears) and mug (an animated person drinks from a mug). "Mug" hugh? Other numerous functions include counting, basic math (addition & subtraction), memory exercises, matching exercises, story telling, reading, vocabulary, rhymes, synonyms & antonyms, filling in the blanks, letter spelling, science questions/learning, social studies, various games involving answering questions with letters or numbers, an art drawing screen that utilizes the mouse which can be saved in memory & some basic English-Spanish lessons (a little useful to my son since my family lives near a Hispanic neighborhood). All of the games & educational tasks have multiple levels of difficulty that can be adjusted as your child learns. There is also a "fun" button that does nothing more than execute about three different animation sequences with an animated penguin (so far my son's favorite button). The unit runs on four AA batteries & there is a power jack for an AC adapter, but no AC power cord is included. Bummer, would have been better if a AC power cord & rechargeable battery would have been included like a real laptop. It is small enough to take on the road to keep my son busy during long road trips in the car, but I worry about leaving it in the car unattended since it almost looks like a real laptop/notebook when closed. Despite the absence of a power cord, I still recommend this as my son so far is really having fun with it & most current laptops/notebooks for young children on the market lack the vibrant colors that the VTech Brilliant Creations Notebook has. I just hope there are more color laptops/notebooks for young children produced in the future as the plain monochrome, LCD diplays available now just don't cut it.