The area of creative writing is not an obvious one for the micro computer to be used in, but this package is all the more interesting for that!

The package comprises two programs and an instruction book. The first program is Monster in which you have the chance to read about some monsters of the past and then to design your own and to decide his features. The program then summarises your design of beast for you to copy down and use later (dumping to a printer may have been a better idea).

Giant also follows this formula, but with more detail required of the designer and more meaningful comments on the input, for example, it calculates a reasonable shoe size after you have suggested one.

I'm sure the children will enjoy using this package to design their own creatures, and should be able to use their ideas in story-writing later. Having said that, you don't need a micro for that; such things have been done in very much this way for some years now in primary schools.

The documentation is excellent and provides a fund of ideas, but it is a real pity that the program has no graphics at all.

D.C.