Abstract: An interactive toy for interacting with a user while a story is being read aloud from a book or played from a movie/video. The toy includes a speech recognition unit that receives and detects certain triggering phrases as they are read aloud or played from a companion literary work. The triggering phrase read aloud from the book or played in the movie/video may have independent significance or may only have significance when combined with other phrases read aloud from the book or played in the movie/video. In one embodiment, the toy is configured to detect only certain types of triggering prompts in certain states, such as, for example, triggering phrases or triggering terms. In this embodiment, and others, the toy is configured to switch between states such that it can at times respond to triggering terms and at other times respond to triggering phrases.

Abstract: In accordance with certain embodiments of the invention, a picture frame may include a holder disposed on the rear side of the frame so as to define a cavity to receive a card. The holder may have a second viewing window that is operable to display the card from the rear side of the frame. The holder may be substantially concealed from the perspective of a viewer exposed to the first viewing window in the front side of the frame.