Reader Rabbit: Learn to Read With Phonics: 1st & 2nd Grade is a computer game in The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit series of children's educational games. It was released in 2002.
Plot[]
Reader Rabbit, Sam the Lion, Paige and Chester, after returning to Wordville from a trip on their Dreamship, see another flying ship taking their reserved parking spot. Paige tells them that the ship is the Golden Guppy, a ship made of pure gold. The heroes enter the ship, which has no captain, but a map, which has only Wordville printed on it. Sam notices lions on the compass on the map, and thus thinks that the ship is from the Land where Lions Roam Free. Sam tries to start the Golden Guppy to get there, but the ship does not start and instead gives them a letter that reads, "To find the Land where Lions Roam Free, take my map and find my lost books." Meanwhile, Ratbeard appears and makes a plan for the Pirats to pursue the Golden Guppy instead of the Dreamship, which they were never able to get, causing him to finally abandon his vengeance on Reader and Sam. Reader and Sam then take the map to the Dreamship and use it to find the letter's writer's lost books, comics and newspapers on the way to the Land where Lions Roam Free. On the way, they stop at Peacemont, the land of dandelions, and Harmony, an underwater land, ruled by a lionfish named Rex and also inhabited by a sea lion pup named Kat.
Once Reader and Sam get to Mane, the Land where Lions Roam Free, they see another lion who turns out to be Sam's grandpa, Grandpa Sampa, who is the letter's writer. Sampa has a journal, which is kept under his hat. They return all his books to him and take him to Wordville, where his Golden Guppy is parked. But when he gets into the Golden Guppy, he bumps into Ratbeard, and Ratbeard steers the Golden Guppy to Mane, causing Sampa's journal's chapters to fall out and end up all over the lands Reader and Sam have been too. Meanwhile, back in Mane, the Pirats have taken over Sampa's fortress. Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion find all of the chapters, return them to Sampa, and get the Pirats out of Mane by launching them far away using cheese. Sampa is then happy to have his grandson home, and says his story will finally be finished with their reunion.
Characters[]
- Reader Rabbit
- Sam the Lion
- Paige
- Chester
- Captain Ratbeard
- Vermina
- Riley
- Mat the Mouse
- Lyle
- Dandy the Dandelion
- Bud & Tuft
- Rex the Lionfish
- Kat the Sea Lion
- Sampa
- Scout
- Seagull
- Monkeys of Gunk
Voices[]
- Marina Cashmark - Reader Rabbit
- Terry McGovern - Sam the Lion
- Julissa Aguirre - Paige
- Roger L. Jackson - Sampa, Lyle
- Kevin Blackton - Rex the Lionfish
- Shelby Barendrick - Dandy the Dandelion
- Irene Trapp - Kat the Sea Lion
- Shannon Taylor - Vermina
- Derek Sorrentino - Riley, Scout, Monkey
- Charles Martinet - Captain Ratbeard
- Joy Steuerwald - Seagull, Monkey Girl
- Andrew Kawamura - Big Monkey
Gameplay[]
The game has two modes: Adventure Mode, in which players progress through the skills and follow the story, and Practice Mode, in which players can play the activities and read the books freely without following the story.
Activities[]
Wordville[]
- Sam's Closet
- Gameplay: Help Sam pack his suitcases with green shirts by opening the drawers to find the shirts with words that have the correct vowel sounds.
- Skills: Short vowels, long vowels with silent "e"
- Reader's Basement
- Gameplay: Look for the target words that Lyle tells you to find on the books to work your way to the top of the book stack to find a special book for the adventure.
- Skills: Word families, comparison of short vowels with long vowels with silent "e"
Peacemont[]
- Falling Peacenuts
- Gameplay: Catch the falling peacenuts by moving the labeled baskets back and forth to make words.
- Skills: Beginning blends, vowel combinations
- Dandy's Treehouse
- Gameplay: Help Dandy build the walls for a tree house by sorting planks with words that have the correct sounds.
- Skills: Ending blends, "r"-controlled vowels
Harmony[]
- Decorator Crabs
- Gameplay: Find the fish with the correct letters to spell a word to decorate each crab for Rex's party.
- Skills: Consonant digraphs, three-letter blends, "r"-controlled vowels, additional vowel combinations
- Kelp Forest
- Gameplay: Look for the target words that Kat tells you to find on the kelp leaves to work your way to the bottom of the sea and find the treasure trove of books on the ocean floor.
- Skills: Ending blend word families, additional vowel combinations
Mane[]
- Roaring Heights
- Gameplay: Break the words on the rock walls apart by their syllables. Then, fill the footholds by creating new words with each word part.
- Skills: Compound words, syllables, prefixes, suffixes
- Grandpa's Moat
- Gameplay: Move fur balls labeled with word parts to build a bridge of words and cross the moat.
- Skills: Compound words, syllables, contractions
Books[]
| Book | Type | Activity Found In | Post-Story Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odd Ship in Wordville | Newspaper | Sam's Closet (Round 1) | Answering Questions |
| Help! My Hut! | Comic Strip | Reader's Basement (Round 1) | Creating a Comic Scene |
| Clem Clam and Snap Crab | Poem | Falling Peacenuts (Round 1) | Writing a Poem |
| My Journal | Journal | Dandy's Treehouse (Round 1) | Silly Stories |
| A Chat with the Pirates | Newspaper | Decorator Crabs (Round 1) | Answering Questions |
| The Lions of Mane | Poem | Kelp Forest (Round 1) | Finding Rhyming Words |
| The Stranded Crown | Comic Strip | Decorator Crabs (Round 2) | Creating a Comic Scene |
| The Tale Begins | Sampa's Book Chapter | Sam's Closet (Round 2) | Drawing and Writing |
| Change Comes to Gunk | Sampa's Book Chapter | Reader's Basement (Round 2) | Writing a Story |
| Old Lion Leaves Gunk | Sampa's Book Chapter | Falling Peacenuts (Round 2) | Silly Stories |
| The First Stop | Sampa's Book Chapter | Dandy's Treehouse (Round 2) | Answering Questions |
| A Trip to Harmony | Sampa's Book Chapter | Decorator Crabs (Round 3) | Silly Stories |
| A Home is Found | Sampa's Book Chapter | Kelp Forest (Round 2) | Answering Questions |
| The Flight to Gunk | Sampa's Book Chapter | Decorator Crabs (Round 4) | Drawing and Writing |
| A New Homeland | Sampa's Book Chapter | Roaring Heights (Round 1) | Writing a Story |
| The Search Begins | Sampa's Book Chapter | Roaring Heights (Round 2) | Answering Questions |
| The Search Continues | Sampa's Book Chapter | Roaring Heights (Round 3) | Drawing and Writing |
Trivia[]
- This is the only Reader Rabbit game in which players sign in from the Learning Launcher, rather than in-game.
- This is the first and only Reader Rabbit game developed by Riverdeep Interactive Learning, which had acquired The Learning Company in September 2001.
- This is the last mainline Reader Rabbit game released in the U.S., as Reader Rabbit Dreamship Tales is a bonus CD, and The Great Word Chase and High Flying Act are interactive e-book CDs.
- This is the last known Reader Rabbit game to be compatible with Windows 95.
- Starting with this game, the Pirats' noses are now black instead of pink.
- This is the only Reader Rabbit game where Sam and some children appear together on the cover.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Other[]
References[]
See also[]
- Reader Rabbit: On a Mission to Help the Lion Flowers, a Nordic-exclusive math-based game in the Reader Rabbit franchise for PC and Nintendo DS featuring many characters and locations from this game.
- Reader Rabbit: Learn to Read With Phonics: Preschool & Kindergarten, the Preschool and Kindergarten equivalent.