Dissappointing, and not appropriate for indicated ages
923684
I got the Soundtracker as a birthday present for a bright six-year old, although the nominal age range was 8+.  As a backup, I have a ten-year old who could I thought should have been able to handle it.  After looking at the assembly instructions and parts, I didn't even let the 10-year old have a crack at it; I figured myself, being a 44-year old with a barn full of tools and a Ph. D. in computer science, looked like the only person in the house who could manage it.

I messed with it for about four hours, eventually doing some things that contradicted the instructions to get it to work, including using a spring and washers in different spots than indicated, partially cutting away an axle housing that the axle bound up on, and using modeling clay to keep one of the wheels from falling off.

The end result changes direction every fraction of a section, so it just sort of shudders around the floor in an erratic, irritating fashion.  The only directions are "forward" and "reverse", with a front wheel that can rotate about 20 degrees (and is just bolted to the frame, with no controls).  Adjusting the sensitivity controls produce no discernable improvement.  The kids played with it awhile, got bored really quickly, and eventually one of them knocked it over, causing it to break into several small pieces.

I guess it seemed like a good idea, but the engineering department really flubbed this one.  0 stars for durability.  0 stars for being age appropriate (WAY too hard...minimal age would be a bright 12 year old, I'd say...no, make that 16.)  0 stars for actually performing in an interesting way similar to the marketing materials.
986645
Be alert that this book is for an older child, not a younger one. The reading level and concepts would be difficult for a child under seven or eight.

I checked this book out from the library first. I was particularly unhappy about the amount of artistic nudity in this book, given the fact that it's designed for children. If that doesn't bother you, then you might find the narrative quite useful, but if you don't want your child seeing page after page of nude statues and paintings, you may want to reconsider this.

As expected, there is an anti-Christian slant to this book, but it is not overly pronounced.
2323788
I bought this book for my niece's fourth birthday.  The pictures looked vibrant and fun, and my niece's name is Molly, too.  The premise of the book looked promising: she has a much-beloved magic dress that makes her anyone she wishes to be (such as a scientist or the mayor).  The author, however, describes Molly's existence with a sneering snideness.  She lives with her divorced mother and anonymous housekeeper in an all-white New York apartment.  Her mother, accompanied by her interior designer, takes Molly to a society wedding, where all the guests appear to be caricatures of adult  types that children would have difficulty recognizing.  I can't imagine any child who would have a relevant context in which to place this book (and I feel sorry for any who would!).  Characterization is poor--all the characters are stock stereotypes, and it lacks the fun and imagination of Eloise, another neglected child living in privilege in New York.  This is not a book for children--unfortunately, it's not really a book for anyone!
2253404
Not Appropriate for 8 -12 (as marked)! Wow, bad taste, NG! Page 23 of the book says,

"Most people who are judged to have committed serious crimes against the lord never get out of here alive.  They are hung at the gallows, have their heads chopped off, or are pressed to death by having weights placed on a board lying on top of them.  After torture, but still alive, some poor victims are cut open and their insides pulled out.  Their heads are often mounted on sticks and placed above the castle entrance..."  Next to a picture of a severed head on a stake.

Truly poor taste in labeling the book (back cover) "Ages 8-12".  Definitely not for 8 year-olds who aren't already being trained as sociopaths.

I expect more and do not intend to buy NG-Kids products or trust their endorsement in the future.  I hope a well placed sticker can make this still giftable.

Brian Tonks
2950921
I was disappointed with this purchase.  I took for 'someone' that it was directed at any age group.  However, it is based on very child-based activities which are completely unsuitable for adults.  Good for kids but not for anything else.
3301221
I am not impressed.  I assumed a word-teaching program would be geared to kids learning to read, like my 2nd son who has been reading for about a year and a half.  But by and large the words are all very advanced, like collegiate level, so it almost seems geared to high school students or adults who want to have a top notch vocabulary -- that's a very specialized group.  I think there are far more parents wanting to help their early readers get good vocabularies, than people worrying about adding the "creme de la creme" of hard words to their vocabulary, so this is a bonehead move by the creators and/or results in them selling to buyers who misperceive what they are getting, like me.  Due to the unfortunate bias of the game towards words my 2nd grade son cannot hope to know yet, he is quickly frustrated by the word games (no one likes to score zero points over and over) and has no interest in playing it.
4450762
It says the book is targeted for ages 3-10, but it uses mostly Baby Talk and preschool-level imagery, so it's definitely targeted to the Barney and Baby Bop set.  My 10-year old rolled her eyes, and I agreed.

I also grew weary of the self aggrandizing.  It was a 320-page InfoMercial on how wonderful and succesful it was.  <groan>

This is a 'Tell Me What To Think' book, where everything is spoon fed, and everything is portrayed as being far simpler than it could possibly be in reality

Anybody want my copy... cheap?

<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Floppy-Sleep-Game-Book-A-Proven-4-Week-Plan-to-Get-Your-Child-to-Sleep/dp/0399532005/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Floppy Sleep Game Book: A Proven 4- Week Plan to Get Your Child to Sleep</a>
1976237
I was rather disappointed with this toy myself, but I got to admit my daughter is having lots of fun with it.

It is supposed to teach the ABC's and shapes, but there are only the three A,B and C buttons, with three shapes. If you press the A button the voice says "A" but then if you press the B button right away it does not say "B" but plays a little music jingle instead and you have to press the B button a second time to hear it say "B". Predictably kids are going to press these buttons rapid fire like A-B-C-B-B-A-C-A etc. and I want the voice to keep up with that reliably. I have noticed the same stupid flaw in other toys we own, where they sacrifice the quick and precise teaching function in favor of putting a little musical jingle after the pronunciation of each letter or number.

Another problem is that the power switch offers 2 modes, but has such a short movement and poor labeling that it is easy to either overlook or just overshoot the center position and not get into that mode very often. Young uncoordinated fingers need distinct switch positions with movements they can see and clicks they can feel.

I do not like the voice either. Some of the simple sentences like "The round cookie is tasty" or whatever are not spoken in a smooth continuous voice, but almost seem to be assembled from separate words differing a bit in tone and volume. I guess it is not quite as bad as the computerized phone messages you sometimes hear... maybe they are just trying to emphasize each word separately... but it sounds halting and un-natural to me.

The included knife is really goofy... of course it cannot actually be sharp, but this one is like a hollow shell which only even looks like a cartoon version of a knife if viewed from one side. A child's imagination has to be pretty forgiving once they actually pick it up with their hand. And the sticker on the roller gizmo was peeling off... I saw that and pressed it down firmly before the adhesive got contaminated from use, but I'm not sure if it will peel up again over time or was just never pressed down properly to begin with. Also the recommended age range of up to 3 years old is too high, I think. Our daughter is 2.5 years old and pretty well knows the whole alphabet plus many shapes, and is working on numbers over 10, so while she does want to play kitchen and is enjoying the toy, the learning features are way obsolete for her.
4894769
Because the book said it was recommended for 4 - 8 year olds, I THOUGHT the game came separate from the book and it was a full book .... NOT.

My 5 1/2 year old son was VERY disappointed.  This is one of his favorite stories, and the story is crammed onto 4 or 5 pages, it's all there but so run together on the little pages that it is not a joy to read.

THEN, they put this very heavy card board flip game with 12 tiles - ONLY 12 - tiles that spin around.  One side are all the same, the other has 6 sets of matches from the story - and this contraption stands straight up perpendicular from the book.  Very annoying to somebody trying to read the story just to read the story.  Plus, since the cards never move - and their are only 12 - it might take him 15 minutes to have it memorized.  Then the game is worthless.

We picked this 1. He loves Eric Carle and this is his most favorite story.  2.  He loves memory games and cards.

We dislike it 1. The story is crammed into a few pages with few pictures.  2. The memory game is not versatile and very limited.  3.  The game is so top heavy that it is hard to handle the book.

So it's boring for an older child, and a younger child will probably need a parent to read and play with it without tearing up the pages underneath.
1123493
I'm german. And i don't like it!
1. The pictures doesn't fit to the text and have no title.
2. Where are the fun facts for children?
3. The text are not for children between 5 - 12, maybe for 10-14 years.
It's very expensive for such a little booklet. It's not a book for me!!
I was expecting much more for this price!
3509522
Obviously aimed at 11 year-olds.  What a disappointment.
4968649
The graphics on the paper are very basic, the glitter areas are difficult to color and the assortment of marker colors are lacking. For a child aged 3-6 this set should be acceptable, but I think if they were to be any older they might have higher expectations and be disappointed.
4369521
We ordered this game because it came up as recommended for those who purchased Cards Against Humanity (which is an awesome game). The age range we had playing this game was from 31-55 years old, and it just didn't hold our interest at all. We went around in a circle and took turns going first because we never got past the 2nd person during a game. The Chaos pack was included, which includes different rules about things you need to say before you draw and other similar things, and that was my personal favorite part. If you threw in 2 or 3 Chaos cards, it was really funny to see each person try to remember all the things they had to do on their turn. The regular cars were fairly silly though, to the point that we had to reread some of them to figure out what just happened. It might be a good game for teenagers or young adults, but definitely not recommended for older adults who want some substance with their games.
2506067
This is not a book worth owning. The majority of the suggested "games" are activities you would do with your child anyways; ones that are easy to think of. There are many repititions, such as a page for sand play three different times. And a lot of the activities suggested are poorly matched to the age it is listed under, very boring and unimaginative, and not likely to "work" as it suggests. I did pick up 3 or 4 ideas. And I was able to skim through it quickly. I would suggest borrowing it from your library.
1925127
This set was a big disappointment to my 7-year-old grandson when he opened it as my Christmas gift to him. True, it is constructed with quality. But it came with virtually no pictures of simple constructions he could follow to draw his interest into building a model. Through trial and error we together had to figure out how to use the spacers, etc. to make it work--it's not as easy as you'd think, especially with no written instructions! Then there weren't enough pieces to build anything but a small model, and even I could see no point building the same construction over and over again. You'd need at least 2 sets to really have any fun. So, although there's educational value in placing the blocks to let the marble transverse through its channels, it's a one-trick pony. That makes it very limited fun-wise and not at all worth the high price. Worse, the blocks are harder to position than you might guess so that you can get the marble to drop through the openings. This makes the set more appropriate for older kids with better small motor control, and not the 5-, 6-, or 7-year-olds stated in the product's recommendations. Parents should also note that since the marbles are a swallow hazard, the set must be kept away from younger children, too. This meant that we had to banish our set out of the playroom because of my grandson's 2-year-old sister. If you want a good construction set, my advice is to put your money into regular blocks or Lincoln logs.
2635011
My 5 year old daughter desperately wants to be funny, and I'm afraid this book isn't helping. She has no sense for timing or pun or irony, so I thought a knock-knock book would teach her some of the basics.

The jokes just aren't clever. SOME of them are mildly funny, but overall just not funny. Most of the puns are weak and the 'sounds like another word' jokes are a stretch. Definitely not for a 5 year old, but maybe kids over the age of 10 would be able to understand all of the jokes.
788477
Not toddler appropriate. It's too lengthy, and honestly is a little weird. I would say if anything, it's for older children who are learning to read.