That’s really interesting… it must be a trend. I just wrote about finding the eReadbook Touch Reading pen, both on Amazon marketplace and in Canada at http://bigreach.ca and I bought one just 6 days ago.
Same thing, we are loving it, being able to read in Chinese with a touch. We have a set that comes with eight beginner books (some which are great for my 4 yr old, some which will be better later on as they are text-heavy such as a book of chinese proverbs, a book of science knowledge and a book of math questions), and we upgraded to the package that includes three books of 600 Characters each (pinyin, character, english translation, sentence, several 2 character words using that character), and also eight Classic Fairy Tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, which is what my son and I are going through now.
The reading is done by the pen using mp3s uploaded to the pen (the company did it for me before shipping the pen, though you can do it drag and drop on your computer… the cd comes with the books), and like you say, is very clear. Not computer voice, but many various voices from small children, to grown men… everyone from the bugs drawn on the pages, to little red riding hood, to the wolf, to grandmother to the hunter all have their own appropriate voices, and the reading is very well done… they speak colloquially so we really get a feel for the syntax of sentences. In the Three Little Pigs, my son was totally amused by the Big Bad Wolf running away squealing that his butt hurt!
We also have the English Chinese children’s dictionary, which is over 300 pages long, hardcover, and says the word in English, then Chinese, has chinese pinyin and character translation, sentence that reads in Chinese and English, and when you touch the pen to the illustration for each entry, it also says a pertinent phrase or sentence in both English and Chinese. This will be a good English dictionary for my son as well as a bilingual Chinese one, as it helps him read the English words too (it is alphabetized by English word, ie look up “on†to get “shang  and sentences for both, as well as a picture)
We really love our set. If anyone is interested in getting the pen from Canada (http://bigreach.ca), you can say you were referred by Leanne (Wenjonggal’s blog), and my pen ID # is E2003-132067. Email your order to “order@bigreach.ca†and they’ll give you $10 credit on your NEXT purchase of books, and credit me $10 for refering you off MY next purchase of books.
You can read about it at my blog:
http://wenjonggal.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/ereadbook-touch-reading-pen/ and
http://wenjonggal.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/ereadbook-last-couple-days-of-free-shipping-and-happy-sharing-program/ … at the first entry there are links to book samples and trial pages… that is what sold me, and also that this particular brand has a gazillion books to choose from.
I wish I’d had this pen three years ago when I started Chinese!
