My DGD's step-grandmother on the other side (Oh, these patchwork families!) sent me an e-mail after the little one's birthday last February to say that they had bought her a "Tonie". I have looked for this online in an English version but can't find anything.
It's a robust plastic cube with a selection of dolls which slot into the top (as far as I understand) and you can read the child a story or sing a song into your computer and upload the sound file on to the website. Then your files can be played when the child slots in the doll which corresponds to you.
I haven't figured out how to actually do the uploading yet, but now my other Daughter-in-Law has bought one, too, and so I can read to both grandchildren from afar!
I'll let you know if I find out what they're called in English and if I ever figure out how to work them, because it's a lovely idea for a present which keeps on giving, and nicer than sitting the children in front of the TV for a quiet quarter of an hour.
I am imagining myself buying books, recording myself reading them, and then sending the book over for the child to look at the pictures while listening to me reading it.