The LeapPad is a brilliant educational device for small children offering

a compromise between technology and tradition.

Designed to help children to learn to read, the LeapPad uses technology to read aloud to a child as it points at individual words on a printed page.

LeapPads come in three parts - a beautifully-illustrated interactive spiral-bound book, a chunky, pleasantly pastel- coloured base unit housing the electronics and a plug-in software cartridge very similar to a GameBoy game.

The books are absolutely excellent and extremely well produced. Pooh Gets Stuck, tells the story of Winnie the Pooh eating too much "hunny" and not being able to get out of Rabbit's house.

The story is delivered by a strongly English-sounding voice, while the technology allows a child the opportunity to go back over passages they have not understood.

The child can control the speed of its own learning by running a digital pen over the text to hear individual words spoken aloud.

At around £30 for a base station and a single book, the LeapPad is not a particularly expensive early-learning tool. It performs so well, I would be pleased to spend the money.

Additional books include more Winnie the Pooh titles like Bounce, Tigger Bounce and Richard Scarry's Best Little Word Book Ever.

These cost between £10 and £12 each, which pushes the price up considerably.

Price £29.99
Phone: 0800 169 5435
Feel good factor: 9 out of 10