read tv
					Charles brings home ReadTV's Alice in Wonderland. Morgan knows the story from the movie and from exhibits at the local Children's Museum. Charles opens the door and calls for her, so Morgan comes running out into the hallway. He lets her know that he as a gift for her and she's very excited. "I want to open it." Charles tells her that she can open it now, but they won't use it until after he's had dinner. He produces a small blister-packed object that depicts the Queen of Hearts, Alice and the Rabbit. Morgan needs help to open it up since the packaging has to be cut open with a sharp pocketknife. Inside is a 3D plastic Alice figurine with a small plug on one side and a little remote control with several buttons and the ReadTV logo. Morgan inspects both objects while her father explains that one needs to be plugged in to the TV. She carries the Alice figurine to the dinner table and sets it up next to her vegetables. Charles explains to his wife that ReadTV is a book that plays on the television. The box just plugs into the input on the front of their set, and the pages are turned by remote control. After dinner Charles takes Morgan into the living room and plugs in the module. He finds the regular TV remote and switches the input to External. Morgan yells, "That's Alice" as the character appears on the title screen. Charles picks up the small remote and Morgan climbs into his lap. The screen shows two links, Instructions and Story. He uses the little remote to select Instructions and a woman's voice reads along with the text. "ReadTV will show you one page at a time, with text at the bottom of each illustration. Read the story to your child and use the forward arrow to turn to the next page when you are done. At any time, you can go backwards by using the back button or start over from the beginning by pressing the stop button, then the forward button to confirm." Charles presses forward and the opening illustration for Alice in Wonderland appears on screen. It shows Alice seated next to her sister on the bank of a river. There's slight movement in the scene--little ripples in the river, some wind in the leaves of a tree and Alice fidgeting as her sister occasionally turns the pages of her book. Morgan can hear quiet sound effects of the water, pages and wind as her father reads the text at the bottom of the screen. "ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?'" He uses the Down button on the remote control to scroll to see the rest of the text. Morgan settles in  to his lap. On the next page a white rabbit runs across the screen. Morgan wants to see it again, so Charles flips back and forth a few times, then reads that page aloud, including a very amusingly high-pitched voice for the rabbit, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Morgan laughs with delight and turns to hug her father. As they go through the book she often requests to go back a page, or have him read voices again. Sometimes he stops to explain parts of the story to her. When they reach the end of the story she demands, "I want Mommy to read it now." Her mother promises to read it in the morning, and with some difficulty they put Morgan to bed. She asks for the Alice figurine, so Charles unplugs it from the television and gives it to her to sleep with.