Orly's Draw-A-Story

reviewed by Allison & Diana Richer, age 7, from US

 

Orly's Draw-A-Story lets you draw pictures and write stories. The program stars a girl named Orly. When you first start to play, she tells you how to play and how to get a new picture and how to get back a picture that you already made. Sometimes she tells a story, and you can make pictures from it. Other times you can do a doodle or draw a picture of your own and make up your own story.

We liked choosing pictures to add to our stories. The program has windows that open and close, and when you look into a window, you can choose the pictures you want to use. By looking at the pictures, you can also get ideas about what you want to write or draw. One thing we didn't like was that when we were drawing a picture, sometimes Orly forced it to be a certain way. For example, when we tried to make a triangular nose, Orly said, "Let me help you," and made it into a circle. Also, some of Orly's stories were too long.

The best thing about Orly's Draw a Story is that when you draw a character, it does things. For example, when we put a toothbrush in a troll's mouth, the troll said, "Mmmm . . . that tastes good." When we poked the troll with a paintbrush, it said, "See if I care." Then when we poked it again, the troll said, "OK, so I do care." The stories are animated to act out what Orly is saying. Even when you write your own stories, they can be animated. We wrote one about bugs on a ship and a sea monster, and only one bug survived.

This program was fun and easy to use. It's great for kids who like to make stories and pictures. We played with it for hours without needing any help from Mom or Dad. If we were grading it, we would give Orly's Draw-A-Story an A minus.

Availabe from The Learning Company

Recommended ages: 5 to 10

Requirements

Windows 3.1 or 95:

33 Mhz 486 or faster
8 MB RAM
Requires 15 MB hard disk space
2X CD-ROM drive or faster
SVGA monitor/display card (640 x 480, 256 colors)
Windows compatible sound device

Macintosh:

Power Macintosh required
System 7.1.2 or higher
8 MB RAM, 5 MB free
Requires 16 MB hard disk space
2X CD-ROM drive or faster
Monitor: 13" or larger color, 256 colors

Works with most popular color and monochrome printers supported by Windows and/or Macintosh.