Cali's BooksThe Ugly Duckling - Discontinued - Recordable Storybook for Children and Grandchildren.Record Your Voice and Read to Your Children or Grandchildren Even When You are Far Away.

The quality of this book is amazing. I'm in awe as much as my child is. I love the thick beautiful cover and how easy it is to use. Charging is so easy! The voice and words on the pre record are clear and easy to understand. Theres tiny background noises here and there.. such as running water, kids giggling and so forth. We thought that was really cute. My daughter is blind and can't read so this book really made her happy. I was able to sit her on my lap, help her push the buttons and watch her face light up in excitement. Best feeling ever! I'm also getting ready for a double transplant so, having this book will come in handy when I can't be with her amd she misses mommy. I love that I can record my own voice reading it to her. I will be purchasing more books in the near future!!

I fell in love with these products when I was in Afghanistan. The ability to easily record your voice and tell a story to your children made this a wonderful gift. My daughter enjoys using this book and she is able to follow along as she hears my recording.

I purchased this book as a gift for a new grandparent so I cannot attest to the quality of the recording or ease of use. However, one of the reasons I chose this book as a gift over other recordable books is because of the presentation. I felt that the cover and style of this book made it seem more "special" - and indeed the book itself is lovely and comes in a nice gift box. Unfortunately, Amazon shipped the book without any additional packaging thus ruining the gift box. So I now have to gift the present in a dirty box covered with shipping labels and Amazon packing tape. So if you're giving as a gift beware that the boxing will be ruined.

I was so excited for this book. My niece lives far away and I love to gift her with recordable books. I was excited to see fairy tale books. I should have looked at reviews more closely to see illustrations. I expected gorgeous fantasy type drawings and a well written, richly told fairy tale. Instead the pictures looked very ordinary. And the writing was subpar. I even found grammatical errors. I’m really surprised given that it came in a nice box and the cover is beautiful. I can’t speak on recording because I’m returning this. And will just go back to my Hallmark books instead.

This is a beautiful book, and it would be even without the recording feature. I read some reviews complaining it was difficult to find the directions and record. The directions are at the back of the book, so I took a picture of them and had the directions right beside the book as I recorded. My only complaint is that some letters, particularly "s", sounded like I had a mouthful of marbles, but other than that, I am very happy with this book.

I bought this as a gift for my niece and she adores it!! The illustrations are so pretty!The packaging is beautiful and made so it's easy to gift. The hard cover and materials of the book all feel very high quality and long-lasting. The instructions are on the back of the book and they are very simple and easy to follow to record and use.I will definitely be buying more of Cali's Books.

First off, the instructions are near the back pages of the book. Wouldn't it make more sense if it were in the front? I didn't know this, so I was searching youtube, even went to their website, etc. just to watch videos to figure out how things worked. I took a picture of the instructions to save you some hair pulling.The touch buttons to hear their default voice works pretty well, but it's when you want to record your own voice is when it gets iffy. You have to hold it to hear a beep, but sometimes the beep won't come. Now when it does beep and you're done with reading the page, you have to hold it again to hear a double beep to confirm it saved. If you don't hold again to hear the double beep, then it will keep recording. The biggest gripe I have is why in the world did they put the save/rec switch in the battery compartment? Why isn't it on the side with the rest of the controls? Every time you want to record, which will be many times!! Because your kids will be like, "Me, me, record me!" You have to take a a screwdriver to open the compartment, switch to rec, do your thing, switch back to save, then screw the battery cap back on. And you have to do that every time your kids want to record again. And you should let them record over and over because they're improving and perfecting their reading. BTW, it takes 3 AAA batteries, which they do include.So in conclusion, the touch buttons could use some improvement, the save/rec switch should be moved to the side, and lastly, they should lower the price. I don't know if many people will collect beyond 1 book if it's $40 a pop. I think this needs to be more affordable. 3-Stars!

This book is made to last! The quality of the cover is great and the illustrations are so cute!!!!😻 The book arrived in a beautiful box so you don’t even have to order gift wrap with it. It has an on/off button and the instructions are pretty clear in the back of the book. Will definitely buy more of this collection!Ps. I LOVE the inclusivity in the book, it makes it more perfect!!💗