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Arthur's Reading Race

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Arthur's Reading Race
Living Books - Titles-Arthur's Reading Race.
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Released

February 21, 1997

Characters

Arthur, D.W.

Language

English

Pages

12

Previous

Stellaluna

Next

The Cat in the Hat

Arthur's Reading Race is the number fifteenth Living Books and the third Arthur Living Books game PC CD-Rom Game from 1997 based on the 1996 book written by Marc Brown and the CD-Rom was released in February 21, 1997.

Plot[]

Arthur learns how to read several words. So he learned to read in preschool. The book opens to back where Arthur was in preschool. He, Francine, Buster Baxter, and Binky Barnes were in preschool during the time.

As he grows, Arthur starts to read everywhere: in the car, in his bed, to his puppy (Pal) and even to his little sister, D.W..

One day in the garage, Arthur tries to teach D.W. how to read, but she insists that already knows how to. Then the two have a small argument, and Arthur tells D.W. to read ten different spelling words around town to prove it so he will buy her an ice cream cone. D.W. agrees. They have to be ten different spelling words (and no word can be used twice).

The kids run to the zoo with Pal, where Arthur points to a sign and asks D.W. what it says. D.W. replies with the word ZOO (making it the 1st spelling word). Then the two see three more words, which are TAXI, GAS, and MILK (D.W reads them; making it the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spelling words).

Later, Arthur almost walks off of the street curb, causing D.W. to tell him to watch out; at this point, she has notices another word (a 5th and a 6th word; due to being a compound word) that says, "Don't Walk", warning people that they could get hit by cars. To be separate words (for a 5th and a 6th word), the two spelling words are DON'T and WALK. When D.W tells Arthur to walk (when the traffic light reads "WALK"), Arthur reminds D.W that she needs four more words to get an ice cream cone.

At the park, Arthur sees a police car and asks D.W. what it says by calling her, "Miss Smarty Pants". Then D.W. reads, POLICE (making it the 7th word), and tells her brother to get off of the grass in warning of the police. After reading 7 words, D.W has counted the words on her word list. She notes that there are three left. Arthur reminds her, "No ice cream if you do not read all ten words".

For an 8th word, D.W. reads, "Bank", and shakes her purse, which is her own bank that hides all of her money in it, so other people won't find it. However, she says, "So you can't find it!". That means she hides her money in her bank so no one can find it, especially not Arthur. At this point, BANK makes eight words. The word BANK is D.W's 8th word.

Almost back home, Arthur and D.W. stop at the ice cream store. Pal gets tangled up with his leash onto a tree. Arthur says to D.W (as he thought D.W read eight words), "We are almost home. Too bad! You only read eight words. No ice cream for you today". D.W. tells Arthur to hold his horses (because he thought D.W. had only read eight words) and spies ICE CREAM in the shop's window and a word HOT DOG on a passing hot dog stand. This gets her impressed about her goal of reading ten words. She got the 9th word as HOT DOG (after quickly reading the HOT DOG word on a hot dog truck or hot dog stand passing by) and the 10th (as it's the ice cream goal word (serving as the 10th and final word)) ICE CREAM. The last two words are HOT DOG and ICE CREAM. Now, as D.W read ten words, Arthur buys her the ice cream as D.W's reward.

Then the kids run inside the shop, where Arthur buys two large ice cream cones. (He pulls out a $50 bill to buy the ice cream.) Arthur bought two big cones (strawberry ice cream for D.W (due to her love of pink) and chocolate ice cream for himself). Arthur chose chocolate ice cream, due to having the choice between chocolate or vanilla. So it was strawberry for D.W and chocolate for himself. D.W exclaims, "Yummy!", and the two head back outside.

Before going back home from the ice cream place, Arthur decides to read his favorite book to D.W. So, Arthur tells her to sit down so he can read her a book. After D.W. disagrees and says she wants to read it, Arthur shakes his head and tells her that there are lots of words she doesn't know. That means, D.W should make Arthur do the reading because the spelling book Arthur had, it had many words that D.W did not know.

At the end, D.W. then laughs. She mockingly tells Arthur to get up. Arthur told D.W that there were many spelling words in the spelling book (word book) that D.W did not know. Well, it looked like so. But D.W (who saw Arthur sitting on a newly painted bench (with a "WET PAINT!" sign)) laughed and told him there were two words he himself didn't know. So, she said, "Now I can teach you two words you do not know --'WET PAINT!'". The two words Arthur did not know was, "WET PAINT!". Arthur who accidentally sat on the bench (not having noticed that he has been sitting on a newly painted bench) gets up. He didn't know how to read. Not knowing how to read (as he forgot about the "WET PAINT!" sign), after getting up, he looks at the back of his pants. His pants (from the paint on the bench) are now covered in white paint. Arthur feels embarrassed since he got paint all over his bottom (knowing he may get laughed at by the rest of his family when they see the back of his pants covered with the wet paint).

Characters[]

Pages[]

  • 1. Arthur learned to read in school.
  • 2. Now, Arthur reads everywhere!
  • 3. Arthur even reads to his sister, D.W.
  • 4. Arthur and D.W. argue about how she doesn't know how to read. / Arthur makes a bet with her to prove that she can read.
  • 5. Arthur, D.W., and Pal stop by the zoo, where D.W. reads her 1st word (which is ZOO).
  • 6. D.W. reads three more words (that being TAXI, GAS, and MILK).
  • 7. D.W. reads two more words at the crosswalk (on the sign has D.W's 5th and 6th words (DON'T and WALK)).
  • 8. D.W. reads her seventh word at the park (that being POLICE).
  • 9. D.W. reads her eighth word (that being BANK).
  • 10. D.W. reads the last two words (that being HOT DOG and ICE CREAM).
  • 11. Arthur and D.W. get some ice cream. Arthur got two big ice cream cones. It was strawberry for D.W and chocolate for himself. (Arthur got chocolate (due to having the choice between chocolate or vanilla).)
  • 12. Arthur sits down on a bench and offers to read his book to D.W. / D.W. laughs at Arthur, tells him he ironically didn't read the "Wet Paint" sign, and Arthur ends up getting his pants dirty (covered in paint) when he sat down on the newly painted bench.

D.W's Spelling Words in the Story[]

  • ZOO
  • TAXI
  • GAS
  • MILK
  • DON'T
  • WALK
  • POLICE
  • BANK
  • HOT DOG
  • ICE CREAM

Arthur's Reading Race games[]

  • Let Me Write
  • I Spy
  • Ice Cream Race

Words in the Pages[]

  • School
  • Car
  • Bed
  • Puppy
  • Sign
  • Zoo
  • Pie
  • 3
  • Taxi
  • Gas
  • Milk
  • Pants
  • Police
  • Grass
  • Bank
  • Money
  • 8
  • Horses
  • Hot dog
  • 10
  • 2
  • Cones
  • Strawberry
  • Book
  • Head

Ice Cream Flavors[]

  • Chocolate
  • Strawberry
  • Vanilla
  • Pizza Chip
  • Bumpy Road (though it's another word for "Rocky Road")
  • Frog Chip
  • Egg Shell
  • Shoe Lace (though it's another word for "Pink Bubble Gum")
  • Moose Ripple (though it's another word for "Chocolate Mousse")
  • Banana Slug (though it's another word for "Banana Ice Cream")
  • Toenail Crunch

Songs[]

Elwood City Locations[]

Demos[]

Trivia[]

  • This is the first Living Book to include mini-games integrated into the story itself, aside from appearing on the Main Menu and Options screens.
  • The four ice cream flavors in the game (Shoe Lace, Banana Slug, Bumpy Road, and Moose Ripple) are real ice cream flavors in disguise. (That is, aside from the chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla flavors). Since "Bumpy Road" is another word for "Rocky Road", it would have been chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and nuts. Because that's what Rocky Road ice cream looks like in reality. For "Banana Slug", it should not have had real banana slugs, but rather yellow banana ice cream. So it would be another word for banana ice cream. For "Shoe Lace", it is actually pink bubble gum ice cream (with a shoe lace made of real bubble gum). So it would be another word for "bubble gum ice cream". And as for "Moose Ripple", it would have meant chocolate mousse ice cream (since the correct homophone should be "mousse" which is a type of dessert). "Moose" should be "mousse". As a result, those four ice cream flavors (Shoe Lace, Bumpy Road, Banana Slug, and Moose Ripple) aside from chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, are edible flavors. This would mean there are seven real flavors (compared to reality) (that being chocolate, strawberry, and including, vanilla). So, Banana Slug is banana, Shoe Lace is bubble gum ice cream, Bumpy Road is rocky road, and Moose Ripple is chocolate mousse. For the other four flavors (Pizza Chip, Frog Chip, Egg Shell, and Toenail Crunch), it is unknown what real ice cream flavor they are in disguise. But it is known that Bumpy Road is really rocky road, Banana Slug is really banana ice cream, Shoe Lace is really bubble gum, and Moose Ripple is really chocolate mousse.
    • While it may be unknown about the Pizza Chip, Frog Chip, Egg Shell, and Toenail Crunch ice cream flavors, the four other flavors (Pizza Chip, Frog Chip, Egg Shell, and Toenail Crunch) are not edible. They are not edible in reality. Pizza Chip is pizza flavored, Frog Chip is frog meat flavored ice cream (with bone-in frog legs or roasted/fried whole mini frogs), Egg Shell is rotten egg flavored ice cream (so it would be another word for "rotten egg"), and Toenail Crunch is ice cream with real toenails in it (shown in the Race Game). The seven following flavors are though (including chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, Shoe Lace, Banana Slug, Bumpy Road, and Moose Ripple) since Banana Slug, Shoe Lace, Bumpy Road, and Moose Ripple are banana, bubble gum, Rocky Road, and chocolate mousse like we actually said before.
      • Although not adapted into a "Living Books" game, in the book "Arthur's First Christmas", Santa's favorite ice cream is a hot fudge sundae (consisting of six scoops of bubble gum ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, a cherry, and nuts). So, he may be getting bubble gum ice cream (which is nicknamed "shoe lace").
      • In the "Ice Cream Race" minigame, if Arthur or D.W chose banana slug, shoe lace, bumpy road, or moose ripple for their ice cream flavors, they would basically be eating banana, bubble gum, rocky road, or chocolate mousse ice cream. But definitely not the sickening flavors (including pizza chip, frog chip, egg shell, or toenail crunch).
      • As for the frog chip ice cream, frog chip is frog meat flavored ice cream with real frog legs or mini roasted/fried whole frogs. Frog meat (in reality) tastes like chicken. While one would be able to eat frog meat (as it tastes like chicken), this would be a sickening flavor. Because frog chip is meat flavored ice cream.
        • And by extension, if one (in reality) goes into the ice cream shop and sees the seven flavors (chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, banana slug, shoe lace, bumpy road, and moose ripple), they would know that banana slug, shoe lace, bumpy road, and moose ripple would indeed be banana, bubble gum, rocky road, and chocolate mousse flavors.
  • The Prunes Song in the ice cream store (when the user clicks on the prunes) uses the same tune as "99 Bottles of Pop" (a memorable folk song).
  • The ice cream store (in this book) also appears in another Arthur book (from the Arthur original series books by Marc Brown), Arthur's Christmas. In that book, it is revealed that Santa eats ice cream: Santa got a banana split sundae (a classic banana split) with six scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, hot fudge, and a cherry.
  • Aside from page 2, Jane and David do not appear at all in this book. This is the only Arthur Living Books game where Jane Read and David Read do not appear (aside from their offscreen dialogue (which is heard on page 2 of the said game's book)).
  • This is the first of the three Arthur Living Books games where Pal appears. The other two games are Arthur's Computer Adventure and D.W. the Picky Eater.
  • This is the only Arthur "Living Books" game which was not adapted into a TV series episode in the Arthur TV series on PBS (although the other four Arthur Living Books games had a book, TV series, and Living Books CD ROM adaptation).
  • You leave the book when D.W. says "Okay, goodbye. Come back and see me again!" (if "Yes" is chosen) but you might want to keep playing if "No" is chosen. The "No" answer is a kitten and the "Yes" answer is Arthur's puppy Pal. She is also the second main deuteragonist who asks the player if they want to quit.
    • Also, compared to the other Arthur games (but not including D.W. the Picky Eater), this is the only Arthur Living Books game that doesn't feature Arthur Read himself asking the player if they want to quit.
  • This demo version can be featured in Green Eggs and Ham, and Stellaluna.
  • This Living Book has a feature with some of the text -- on text that is highlighted blue, clicking it reveals a picture of the word.
  • This is the second game to have pictures over words (matching to the correct word) when the user clicks on a word. The first game was Green Eggs and Ham. The third and fourth ones are The Cat in the Hat and D.W. the Picky Eater.
  • It is revealed that D.W. loves pink. And it's clearly evident, considering that her jumper is pink.
  • The Treasure Hunt mini-game in Arthur's Computer Adventure is a remade version of the Race Game.
  • This is the last Living Books Game to have the Living Books Samplers integrated in the Product and "A Random House/Broderbund Company Ltd." by-line. Not long after that, the sampler wasn't integrated in any more Living Books games, and on the Arthur's Computer Adventure, it was included separately in the files outside of the game.
  • In this game, the four credits animations (Painting, Programmer, Music and Cheering) get crammed into two files having pairs of credits animations (one file having Painting and Programmer; the other having Music and Cheering). For both credits files, the first credits animation also jump-cuts to a second-long black screen before jump-cutting to the second animation in the same file.
  • This is the last Living Books game (not counting V2 of Just Grandma and Me) where the audio is mainly in low quality. Starting with The Cat in the Hat onward, the audio is now produced in high quality (with the exception of the intro, the Options and Quit screens, and the credits).
  • In this game, the title card for the demo of "Harry & The Haunted House" was oddly corrupted and would crash the entire program (under Windows/Macintosh).
    • In order to correct this, you would have to copy all the game's files to your desktop, then take the file of the title card for the Harry demo from either the 3rd sampler or the 640x480-resolution games and replace the one in the files for Arthur's Reading Race.
  • The 1999 Version has a demo called "Orly's Draw-a-Story".
  • The 1999 version of the Arthur computer game "Arthur's Reading Games" reuses the entire "Arthur's Reading Race" Living Books game version, except the main menu and all of its buttons are modified, D.W.'s introductory dialogue being different (i.e. she says "Welcome to Arthur's Reading Race!" instead of "Welcome to Living Books!"), the Options button being changed to "Pick a Page", the Living Books Sampler removed, the Living Books intro being replaced with the Creative Wonders still logo, and the Credits button being inserted into the main menu. The actual Living Books jazz credits sequences (hence the exact same animation sequences as used in the Living Books version) were also oddly left intact, however the credits listings were slightly modified to add in The Learning Company staff.
    • However, the sampler with the demos is still intact in the files and in the outline file.
  • Following Sheila Rae, the Brave, this is another Living Books title onward that is, for some reason, not planned to be re-released by Wanderful, leaving it out of print. Copies of the CD-Rom can still occasionally be found on some auction sites including eBay.
  • This is the first Living Books game onward whose ScummVM emulation build has not been made as of yet.

Quotes[]

Page 1[]

Teacher: Everyone did a great job today! We'll practice more reading tomorrow. [closes book]

Page 3[]

Arthur: D.W., if you know how to read, how come your book was upside-down?

D.W.: [looks at her book while holding it upside-down] I can read in ALL directions.

Page 4[]

[when the user clicks on D.W.]

D.W.: [as she jumps up onto the fence and puts her hands in front of her face] Look, Arthur, I'm an elephant!

[she also trumpets like one and rocks back and forth, so much that she falls into a bush below with a yelp! As Arthur looks down in shock, all of the zoo animals start laughing by D.W.'s humiliation. D.W. then walks back onscreen (now very annoyed), with a twig wrapped around her shoulders]

Arthur: [also slightly laughing] D.W., you look like a tree.

D.W.: [sarcastically (as she throws the twig off of her)] Ha-ha! Very funny. Why don't YOU make like a tree and leaf?

[knowing what she REALLY means, Arthur doesn't respond]

Page 6[]

D.W.: Now I've read four words. [thinks for a second] If I read 20 words, you'll have to buy me TWO ice cream cones.

Arthur: Four words is a long way from 20, D.W.

[D.W. snaps her fingers as if to say, "Rats."]

[Arthur looks around the block]

Arthur: I spy four words… [points at said words on signs as he reads them] "Parking," "Pet Shop," and "Pizza."

D.W.: Hey, no fair! I could've read those!

Arthur: [realizes his mistake and slaps his hand on his forehead] Whoops!

Page 8[]

[Arthur points to word on the statue in the park]

Arthur: D.W., what does that say?

D.W.: It doesn't say anything. Statues don't talk!

Page 10[]

D.W.: Well, I read ten words. Do I get ten scoops of ice cream?

Arthur: Very funny, D.W!

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