Reviews

Story Maker was the only piece of software to win the National Literacy Association's prestigious WOW! award in 2004, awarded for products that 'drew a collective gasp of wonder from the (Quality Control) panel'. And here's what the NLA said about Story Maker:
Just let your children have free rein on this and watch their creativity take flight! The original Story Maker is a well established product. But this new revised version 2 is so much better and is so easy to use. As one of our panel members said 'It's a bit like assembling an animated picture book complete with sound.'
National Literacy Association

The aim of Story Maker is to provide creativity and learning in students of all ages. It aims to appeal to users of all abilities and encourages them to improve their story writing skills and knowledge about language in a fun and motivating way. The program fulfils these objectives well. The content covers various subjects with a variety of different backgrounds, characters and subjects and the use of French can make learning another language interesting and fun. It provides opportunities that will motivate the user and encourage them to improve their reading and story writing. The program uses large easy to read font and fun colourful pictures and graphics.
schoolzone.co.uk

Will appeal to all ages across the primary phase and can be easily used by pupils of all ability levels. Teachers of younger children may also welcome the opportunity to create their own text relating directly to classroom work. Gives ample opportunity to cover many of the programs of study for English as described in the National Curriculum Key stages 1 and 2 The interface is easy to understand. The accompanying manual is well written, offering clear and precise instructions on how to use the program.
An excellent program for classroom use, which will stimulate children to develop their literacy skills in an imaginative and enjoyable manner.
BECTa

My young testers found dynamic linking easy to set up and understand. Children can create a moving and talking picture very quickly. SPA will put your Masterpieces onto their Web site for others to download or they can be swapped via the Story Player program which can be freely downloaded. But don't expect to be let back on the computer for some time.
PC Home

As with all SPA products, it is attractive to students and forgiving of mistakes. Once you get started, time fairly flies by. The possibilities are truly endless, and the final product can be distributed with a free Story Player.
RM User

This is a very simple program to use, but full of sophisticated features which will appeal to all ages. The manual is easy to understand, and takes the user step by step through all the essentials.
Text was easy, I could place it where I liked, even making the speech bubbles transparent. I linked stamps to actions and sounds, and by clicking on the text it can be read out. Now for animation. I have never attempted this sort of thing before, but like everything else it was simplicity itself. The disk also contains a selection of sprites which have built in animation to add a degree of professionalism.
Sound effects next. Just by clicking on the correct icon I could choose from a whole range of realistic noises.
One of the major plusses of this program is the Story Player. This can be downloaded and distributed free. So children who have home computers can show their masterpieces to the family and stories written for younger children can be made into an ICT library without tying up the main program. Brilliant! What an incentive. Stories are meant to be read and these will be.
This program is a real treasure and in my opinion very good value for money.
MAPE (Microcomputers and Primary Education)