If you know any kids who are intrigued by wild African animals, interactive scholarship, and the flashing announcement of incoming "e-mail," you owe it to them to snare a copy of this award-winning software from WNET's Nature TV series. From the very first moment, when an impressively stamped passport allows users entry to the game, Nature Virtual Serengeti successfully captures kids' imaginations by asking them to play an integral part in an exotic research trip. That creative framework, along with the fascinating videos of animal activities in the Serengeti--including a wildebeest giving birth as it runs and a crocodile carrying its baby inside its gargantuan jaw--couldn't provide more exciting or enduring educational moments. The "guide" for the trip is the absent Dr. Elgin Carp, an amusing, hyperkinetic zoologist, who is being whisked off to conduct far-flung field studies and thus cannot complete the work he has begun in Tanzania. Contacting you with frequent mock "e-mails," Carp explains that he's leaving you with his half-started field journal and a full map of the Serengeti region, plus he's giving you use of his hardy jeep and his small private plane. Your job is to find 150 missing "animals" (i.e., videos) by scrolling for these creatures amidst 58 gorgeous 360-degree panoramas of the Serengeti plains. Once an animal is "found" (by running your mouse cursor carefully over all areas of the panorama), you must properly classify it in the journal, based on the area of investigation the film footage illustrates. Shots of a zebra grazing, for instance, will likely belong in the journal section that discusses different animal fur patterns and their significance to the animals' survival.
This CD-ROM is advertised for children 9 and older, but we found that its most sincere devotees fell into the 7- to 8-year-old range. They were still young enough to be seriously excited about receiving frequent "e-mails" from goofy Dr. Carp and having a chance to go onto the Web a bit to read the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online articles and to follow a few selected animal Web links. As well, the younger set will likely display a little more astonishment at the footage captured in this program. --Jean Lenihan
