Dear America - Friend to Friend
In this game, you can visit six Dear America
characters: Remember Patience Whipple, a Pilgrim; Abigail Jane Stewart, living through the
Revolutionary war; Hattie Campbell, a pioneer on the Oregon Frontier; Clotee, a slave girl;
Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish immigrant and Margaret Ann Brady, an orphan voyaging on the
Titanic.
You look for their keepsakes, and guide them through an adventure that takes place in their
diary by using instant messaging.
I liked this game a lot, and I think that girls
would like reading the diaries and sending messages back and forth.
It was the instant messaging that I liked best. When I was talking to Clotee, from
A Picture of Freedom she said that I was a good friend to her. I would have liked to have even
more opportunities to talk to the characters.
The game play was actually very interesting.
The rendering was very good. The girls looked almost lifelike.
The voices had accents and were good. Zippy Feldman, a Russian girl in New York, had a strong
Russian accent that was authentic but was still easy to understand.
The sound was wonderful. All the music came from the time period in which you
were playing and you had the choice of two other kinds if you didn’t like one of them.
I agree with the stated age range because I think that anyone younger than eight will
get confused.
To get into a game that you have already started, you enter your password, which is cool.
I think that this is a really good game and would play it again and again.
Reviewed by Vivian B. 12/00
Six of the more that 20 girls in the Dear America book series make
up this interactive story adventure.
The content, while based upon the books, may be considered to be more like a
sequel or prequel.
Knowing that girls like to read, love chatting with friends and that
parents are somewhat concerned about safety on the Internet,
Knowledge Adventure has come up with a product that attends to all of these.
They have used stories that girls already like and activated them with
instant messaging across time and space without going out to the Internet.
The player selects one of the characters and by answering her questions
and offering advice, helps to develop the story.
The character's diary provides the basic story line.
The interaction comes through questions from the character in the form of
Instant Messaging with the player's answers chosen from pre-scripted responses.
Players can write in their own diaries. If you need hints to get started,
your character will make helpful suggestions under the Brainstorming
heading.
There are additional activities involving answering questions and finding
objects. The graphics are minimal - this is a reading game.
Girls who already are fans of the Dear America series will find this
a way to get closer to their favorite character.
While the game's communication consists of non-online chats, the game
producers also offers online chats,
and e-mails to girls and their friends through education.com.
This site has an ESRB privacy policy.
ESRB is the organization that developed the ratings system for games.
But, as with all sites, we advise that parents read the privacy statements.
Editor Review 12/00
Dear Americabooks are available from Amazon.com at prices starting from
$8.79
Ages 8-12
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