The British may know John Lithgow best as a bad guy in movies such as Cliffhanger, or starring in the TV show Third Rock From The Sun, yet he's actually built up quite an alternative career in the States. He's turned his talents towards writing children's books and accompanying educational materials. And now, with this CD-ROM aimed at eight-year-olds and over, he's tackling the computer market too.

Books By You, which is hosted and narrated by Lithgow, is a well presented program that simply provides the tools for youngsters to put their own book together. It's not going to be 100 percent their own work, of course (and you'd argue it's not even 30 percent their work, for reasons we'll come to). Instead, the program gives them a choice of four storylines to follow - such as The Wailing Alien and The Mystery Of The Monkey Palace - and in each case the basic framework of the story is in place.

What happens, though, is that a video clip plays of Lithgow enthusiastically introducing the story, and he talks the user through what they're going to have to do. So at first it might involve coming up with a name of a character, and then - under Lithgow's guidance - answering basic questions about them that will be woven into the story.

For instance, we followed The Wailing Alien story and found ourselves describing a madcap aunt, the name of a farm, a bizarre new cheese and assorted loud noises. Soon we were making up facts about aliens, and lots of other factors that can be answered as imaginatively or plainly as the user chooses.

There are quite a lot of decisions to make, so sensibly the program breaks proceedings down into chapters. Once you've got to the end of a chapter and answered the many questions that entails, you can preview it. At this stage you can easily revise any of your decisions just by clicking on them, and you can add your own pictures or choose from those supplied with the program.

It's a fairly straightforward yet effective template that the program sets up, but it's considerably enhanced by the engaging and enthusiastic Lithgow, who puts full gusto into the project.

On the downside it's very Americanised, and you will need to work around that. But some parental guidance here and there can circumnavigate it. Also, once you've done the four stories, you do reach the end of the road, even if you can go back and rewrite elements. The very creative are likely to be frustrated that the program straightjackets you to the parameters of the stories that are already in place.

Yet, for the most part, when a child spots a nigh-on 100-page book coming out of the printer that they've had an active part in creating, that's where the £9.99 Focus is asking for Books For You comes into its own. Granted, you may end up spending double the retail price on printer cartridges, but as an educational tool this is still worth the investment.

Americanisms aside, this is a well-rounded educational tool with real value to it, and superbly hosted.