Perfect Christmas Present for an Early Reader Under 40 Pounds - Magical Book Reader Review

Well let me tell you about the Sparkup Magical Book Reader.

After all, it's that time of year when you start to worry about Christmas presents, even if you haven't yet started buying them. There's the child who has EVERYTHING, and you know you want to get them something educational but you don't know what.

Aaron had seen lots of adverts for this amazing product on TV and kept saying "Mummy I want that". He's always been an avid reader, but even more so now that he started school a few weeks ago. Imagine my excitement when I received an email about the Magical Book Reader and HIS when it actually arrived. Luckily I captured that excitement, the pure joy, on camera:

We have several electronic readers already, but this is by far the best, way superior. So far we have the Thomas Me Reader that comes with 8 hard back books and the Read with Me Scout Teddy that comes with 5 hard back books. They are both much loved, but at 4 years old, the Magical Book Reader is definitely the next step in Aaron's learning and development. You don't have to press a button each time you turn a page (unless you are recording the book) and the book plays, like an audio book, in the voice of whichever family member recorded it. We have yet to pin Daddy down but we will!

Getting it out of the packet was relatively quick and easy, once you allow for cutting all of those security strings at the back of the packaging. I loved that I didn't have to put batteries in. The only problem was there was paper around the beautiful hard back starter book and our speed trying to get it off almost ripped a page so be careful there.

Aaron understood the concept immediately and read that starter book about 40 times in three days. It was great as that book enables the child to completely grasp and understand (via a story) what it's all about while the adult reads the User's Guide. 

Reading the User's Guide made me want to get on and record a book, but given that Aaron had been playing with the Magical Book Reader while I had been reading the instructions, he was very unwilling and reluctant to part with it. I didn't want to let him record a book, until I'd tried to myself, so that I could see if it was something I could do, let alone him. That did cause us to lock horns for a few minutes but we did eventually BOTH get to have a play ;-)

I would say, that recording a book TOGETHER, is a great thing to do, as you can hear both your voices when you play it back. These are the ones we treasure listening to the most if I'm honest.

The thing is, it picks everything up, so make sure you are composed and sitting comfortably ready to begin.

Recording is simple. You attach the reader to the back of the book. Turn the reader on. Record the cover. Then press a button to record each page, pressing the round button to stop, while you turn to the next page.

We have by now recorded books in many different sizes and thicknesses - I am VERY impressed.

Once you have several books stored in it (which you can download and back-up) your child, as Aaron, can then grab any book that's stored, and sit down to read independently as below. Magical Book Reader with its little camera, recognises each and every page (if recorded) and knows when the child turns the page, meaning if they skip a page the reader does too.

One problem I have had, is I am so anxious to stop recording after reading a page (so that it doesn't record the noise of me turning the page) that I am quite guilty of cutting the final word of a page in half, so when you play it back, if the final word on a page is garden, I may have only recorded "gar". So make sure you are composed, and ready to record, relaxed, when you sit down to do it. Experiment! It doesn't have to be perfect first time.

Your child's reaction to hearing it read back is MAGICAL. The two readers I mentioned earlier in this review both come already loaded with the narrator. THIS product, where it is you, or your child's voice, is where the magic comes in. Like I have said above, it is REALLY magical to record a story TOGETHER as it is a joy to listen back to, especially if you are reading the book once again while listening. We did this with our favourite book: Driving My Tractor :-) and we also did so with Old Mother Hubbard.

The Sparkup Magical Book Reader is currently on offer at Tesco for only £29.99 the purchase of which will accrue you 29 Clubcard points! It's a great offer, as when we first received ours everyone was selling them for 40 pounds.

Hey, guess what, 

you can win one here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you would like to find other competitions with a closing date in October visit here: Super Lucky Me, click on the button below:

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Disclosure: I have been sent two magical book readers. One to review as above, and the second, in order to host this giveaway.

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