While kids are bonding with Ryan (and enjoying the cool construction of these slick, bound decks), parents will thrill at the range of fundamental academic skills and common-sense information that their children will pick up from these fun-to-guess cards. It's all here: questions about the alphabet, spelling, vocabulary, counting, spatial concepts, the physical sciences, as well as demonstrations of right from left, safety rules, and names of computer equipment. There also seems to be the perfect balance of "easy" and "hard" questions in this huge sampling. Kids feel both capable and challenged with Brain Quest, and thus stay with these decks for a long time. (Ages 5 to 6) --Jean Lenihan