Developer: Living Books
Publisher: Brøderbund Software, Inc.
Year: 1992
Genre: Edutainment
System: Macintosh

Yeah, that’s right. I’m reviewing a multimedia cd-rom. Just Grandma and Me is an interactive storybook based on the Little Critter book of the same name. You go through 12 screens of a book about Little Critter going to the beach with his grandma, which the game reads to you, and then you click on things to see funny little animations until you decide to go to the next page. There’s not a whole lot to it but it must work because my kids like it and I liked it when I first played it as a child too.

The first time I played it was when I was 6 years old and in my 1st grade classroom (if you want to know how old I was, it was September, 1993). The teacher put the cd-rom into the classroom’s Macintosh and I was blown away. Little Critter was talking and telling us which buttons we could push, and then started dancing to music. I had never seen a game do this before. This was my first time seeing a cd-rom as well, since we did have a PC (and Amiga before that) at home but they didn’t have cd-rom drives. I was so charmed by the story reading itself to me and all the funny animations that happened from clicking on stuff. Our family did eventually get a cd-rom drive about a month or two later and it came bundled with this game, which I played a lot along with later titles in the Living Books series.

A cd-rom is going to be a little less magical in 2026 (to some folks, not me!) but I think it still holds up, or at least my kids like it. The animations are still charming and it’s got a lot of funny little bits that happen when you click on stuff. Obviously it’s not a thing you’re still going to charge $30 or whatever for, but interactive storybooks are still a thing that kids enjoy and that’s what this is. Later releases of the game include a minigame or two as well as the ability to play in other languages. Plus with it having ScummVM support, you can play it on basically everything.

Fun fact: While he had plenty of success with his books, Mercer Meyer has a long history in computer games too. While most of his games are related to his Little Critter books, he did a few before this, including a text adventure.

Living Books: Just Grandma and Me is available on Steam and mobile platforms.