Leapfrog's Tag Reader (for ages 4 to 8) is a great way to encourage your pre-schooler's love of reading. Our 14-year old blog contributer, Alex Sanfilippo, gave the Tag the hands-on treatment back in February, and as of June, the product is available for everyone.

A pen-like gadget, the Tag interacts with the pages of a book and encourages kids to read along and learn new words and sounds. When you purchase the Tag ($49.99), it comes with Leapfrog's original book: "Ozzie and Mack," a cute story about Ozzie the Otter and his pet bug Mack. Kids can simply open the book and start pointing at words and objects, reading along with the book and playing games. What's cool is that no matter where a child points the pen on the page, the book responds. For example, if you point at a character, it will speak; if you point at a waterfall, you'll hear the whooshing water. Kids will appreciate that they're never clicking on the "wrong" thing.

Leapfrog has a whole line of books and activity cards that are compatible with the Tag. Each books costs $13.99, but they're currently on sale for $11.19. You can then download the audio for free and transfer it to the pen via USB (see screen shot below).

Parents can easily add and remove books from the pen using a simple drag-and-drop interface; the Tag can hold up to 5 books at a time. The Tag Reader is compatible with Leapfrog's Learning Path online progress tracker, which will be go live in September. You can sign up now at leapfrog.com

Get your Tag Reader on Leapfrog.com.