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"Munch", "scoff" and "pling" could well describe the action of this punctuation exercise game, for children of eight years or above. The good sound and graphics of these programs, using a continuously animated spherical "pacman" motif, promote good motivation and concentration span, in the children using them.

In play, Punky the Good draws correct text on the screen, the commas, full stops and capital letters of which are then rapidly consumed by the nasty green Nosher the Bad. The child then must put the stolen punctuation back into the text, using the cursor control keys.

The idea is a good one, but the examples of text consist of dreadful comic slang, that even has incorrect punctuation - as all quotes and necessary apostrophes are missing (to make things simpler?). Fortunately, teachers can easily insert their own correct text into the DATA statements within the program.

P.D.