FARM

A winning interactive farm adventure that’s sure to appeal to babies and toddlers.

This app offers up six different stories, all of which can be selected by matching the top and bottom halves of their protagonists. Cuddly Cow is tired and is trying to find a quiet place to rest. Lucky Lamb is lost and needs to get back home. Gobbly Goat is hungry and is searching for something to eat. Each page of every story provides commentary, both in the form of narration and dialogue—the latter of which is triggered by tapping the animal. Thus, readers are apprised of the animals’ thoughts and ideas as the story progresses. Narration is in keeping with Nosy Crow’s other offerings (Cinderella, 2011, and Franklin Frog, 2012, to name two), which means that charming children with animated British accents provide the rhyming voice-overs and dialogue. Developers have, apparently intentionally, made it a little difficult to activate page turns or interactions, which is tremendously helpful in warding off tap-happy fingers that would skip over the story in favor of finding the app’s whistles and bells. (However, it might be frustrating for those who are accustomed to super-responsive interactive elements.) Diggity Dog, who has lost his bone, sounds much like a meowing cat when whimpering, but other than that, this offering is rock solid.

If Old MacDonald had an iPad, this might be his favorite book. (iPad storybook app. 6 mos.–3)