The five programs in this series are from MacMillan Education's best-selling reading scheme, Gay Way, which is widely used in primary schools. Educational consultants for the programs were Betty Root and Diana Bentley, of the Centre for the Teaching of Reading. The programs form a carefully structured sequence, beginning with letter recognition and sight vocabulary, and building up to the concept of positional language (words such as under, on, inside) in Program Five.

The excellent booklet which comes with each package has a lot of useful, practical advice to offer parents who want to help their children to read, and the contents of the various programs are clearly described.

When playing the games, it is possible to return to the menu at any time when the prompt 'Press A Key' is displayed on the screen, but a major snag with all the programs in the series is that a child inadvertently pressing BREAK on the Spectrum will crash the program altogether. The series, though, is fun to use with a strong emphasis on learning through play. The popular animal characters featured in the Gay Way reading books are also prominent in the programs, and are illustrated on the attractive packaging.

Control keys: Moves from PRESS A KEY and PRESS A NUMBER to typing in the letters of a word.
Keyboard play: Very good
Use of colour: Bright and clear
Graphics: Very attractive