Grown-ups: hold the star and your settings are right there — the word set, sound effects, and the speech dictionary. No extra taps, and nothing else on that screen.

Also new this month:
• The pocket chart: navy felt, cream sentence-strip cards, one crayon color per word, and a row of pockets that fills with gold stars as your child reads.
• Your own words: type or paste any list — this week's spelling words, names, anything — and the deck reads it.
• Shuffle: deal the deck in a fresh order every time.
• Letter cards show the capital and the small letter together.
• The screen stays awake while the deck is listening, and the microphone recovers on its own if it ever stalls.