The fire ants at Camp Hot Foot have challenged the Bug-A-Boo campers to a canoe race, except Camp Bug-A-Boo doesn't have a canoe. So these personable and imaginatively animated insects go to work—with your help and a nudge occasionally from the Big Guy In The Sky—to build a canoe for the race.

Made by Digital Praise Inc., which is becoming a leader in family-friendly entertainment software that contains subtly interjected Christian values and themes, this latest Hermie & Friends title mixes in a few underlying lessons about friendship and accepting differences in others. None of this is sermonized, though God Almighty does make a couple of cameo appearances when his gentle booming voice reminds Hermie and buddies of the right way to think and behave. ("They are the fire ants!" says worried pal Wormie. "What if they do something weird? They're different from us!" To which Hermie replies: "Do you remember what God told us about Stanley?" God: "Accept him and see what happens.")

Mostly, though, players participate in the five engaging activities in which they try to earn parts needed to build the canoe. At Buzby's Archery range, for instance, players exercise fine-motor skills shooting arrows at moving bull's-eye targets and floating balloons for points that earn canoe parts. Schneider's Nature Trivia game runs easy multiple-choice questions about the natural world. Lizzie's Mess Hall is a fun food identification game in which players drag requested ingredients into a bowl.

Oh, and God interjects some wisdom about failure—like when a player is having trouble doing one of the activities, Hermie and Wormie raise the subject and the voice of God provides the answer. Nothing like going to the primary source!

Overall, this software is similar to games found in edu-tainment software for this age group, though the graphics and animation are better than most—vivid and lively characters who have distinct personalities. But the lessons go beyond problem-solving and phonetics to what might be called "morality lite"—actually the kind of values good people embrace, Christian or not. So don't let the spiritual slant scare you off. This is simply good and kind game making, not preaching.