The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series Reader Rabbit, for preschoolers through second graders, and The ClueFinders, for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou.
Living Books is a series of interactive read-along adventures aimed at children aged 3–9. Created by Mark Schlichting, the series was mostly developed by Living Books for CD-ROM and published by Broderbund for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Two decades after the original release, the series was re-released by Wanderful Interactive Storybook for iOS and Android.
Reader Rabbit is an educational game franchise created in 1984 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called The ClueFinders was released for older students aged seven to twelve.
An interactive storybook is a children's story packaged with animated graphics, sound or other interactive elements. Such stories are usually published as software on CD-ROMs. They have also been referred to as computer books, picture book programs, books-on-disk, talking books, or living books.
Mark Schlichting is a publisher, author, and digital pioneer of children's multimedia and interactive design software. He is best known as the creator and subsequent Design and Art Director of Broderbund's Living Books series including the original 1994 Living Books PC game Harry and the Haunted House, one of the first lines of children's interactive book software on CD-ROM. Schlichting was Design and Art Director for Living Book's first interactive CD-ROM book adaptation, Mercer Mayer’s Just Grandma and Me, which was one of the first software titles accredited as a school textbook and used as a product demonstration by Apple CEO John Sculley.
Reader Rabbit 3 is a 1993 educational video game, part of the Reader Rabbit franchise. It was released for DOS that year, but was released for Windows and Macintosh in 1994 under the title "Reader Rabbit 3 Deluxe!".
The Magic School Bus is a series of educational software video games developed by Music Pen and published by Microsoft via their Microsoft Home brand. The interactive adventures are part of the larger franchise and based with The Magic School Bus original series books and public television series.
Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.
Chop Suey is a point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Magnet Interactive Studios for the Macintosh in 1995. It was developed by Theresa Duncan and Monica Gesue to be a story disc for girls. Art is by Ian Svenonius, music and sound is by Brendan Canty, and narration is by author David Sedaris.
The African Storybook (ASb) is a multilingual literacy initiative that works with educators and children to publish openly licensed picture storybooks for early reading in the languages of Africa. An initiative of Saide, the ASb has an interactive website that enables users to read, create, download, translate, and adapt storybooks. The initiative addresses the dire shortage of children's storybooks in African languages, crucial for children's literacy development. As of March 2023, the website had 3 800 original titles, 7 266 translations and 236 languages represented.
Early Learning House or simply the House Series is a collection of four main educational video games and two compilations for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, developed by Theatrix Interactive, Inc. and published by Edmark software. Each different game focuses on a particular major learning category with selectable skill settings for preschooler, kindergarten and elementary learners. Millie's Math House (1992) on mathematics, Bailey's Book House (1993) on language, Sammy's Science House (1994) on science, and Trudy's Time and Place House (1995) on history and geography. A spin-off, Stanley's Sticker Stories (1996), sees players create animated storybooks with the series' characters. Millie & Bailey Preschool and Millie & Bailey Kindergarten each contain the combined activities from two of the four software products. In addition the programs can be configured by an adult mode to suit students with special needs. Most of the activities in every game have two modes, one to allow learners to explore and try it out for themselves and the other for learners to follow specific tasks set by the game characters. Learners also have the option to print pictures of creative activities and record sounds in phonics activities. Later the games were re-developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology and re-published by The Learning Company with newer graphics and additional activities.
Madeline is a series of educational point-and-click adventure video games which were developed during the mid-1990s for Windows and Mac systems. The games are an extension of the Madeline series of children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans, which describe the adventures of a young French girl. The video-game series was produced concurrently with a TV series of the same name, with characters and voice actors from the show.
Magic Tales is a series of interactive storybooks for children, developed by Animation Magic and produced by Davidson, which were distributed by Capitol Multimedia, Inc. on CD-ROM for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. The series was introduced at the 1995 MacWorld trade show. The series began with the release of Baba Yaga and the Magic Geese in 1995. The stories are narrated by the central character Grandpa Mouse, who reads them to his two grandchildren while they are having a boring time. The series was titled "El Abuelo Ratón" in Spanish. Each story has twelve pages.
Math Rabbit is a 1986 video game spin-off from the Reader Rabbit edutainment series. It was made by The Learning Company for MS-DOS and Apple II series. A Deluxe version was released in 1993 for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Windows 3.x. In 1997, the game was remade for Windows and Macintosh as Reader Rabbit's Math 1. The final remake for Windows and Macintosh in 1998 is Reader Rabbit's Math Ages 4-6, with a personalized version released in 1999.
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten is a video game within the edutainment series Reader Rabbit, published by The Learning Company in July 1997. A new version of the game was developed in-house by Graffiti Entertainment, and was released in 2009.
Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey is a 1994 video game released on the Windows and Macintosh systems. It is the sixth game in the Reader Rabbit franchise. Designed for ages 4 till 7, the game introduces the new main characters Mat the Mouse and Sam the Lion who accompany Reader. It was then re-released in 1997 under the title "Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey For Grades K-1", followed by another in 1998 titled "Reader Rabbit's Reading Ages 4–6" and a personalized version in 1999.
Magic Fairy Tales: Barbie as Rapunzel is a 1997 educational adventure game developed by Media Station and published by Mattel Media.
Europress Bookshelf is a series of interactive storybooks for children, developed by Europress Software and published by Q Range on CD-ROM for Mac OS and Windows, using their own games creator Klik & Play to produce the products with minimal programming. The games came under three series including "Read & Play" for younger readers, "Topsy and Tim" based on the Adamson books and "Living Classics".
Reader Rabbit's Ready for Letters is a 1992 video game and the fifth game of the Reader Rabbit franchise. Although a spin-off title, it is designed for ages 3 to 6 to teach prereaders about becoming literate and phonics.
Discis Knowledge Research is a company, founded in Toronto in 1988, that acquired rights to children's stories and published them as CD-ROM-based interactive children's books.
