THE FARM NOISES

Cheery illustrations and authentic animal noises make this simple outing to the farm a happy one, introducing 10 common farm animals and their babies.

One cow is joined by one calf, mooing in delight; one horse is met by two foals, with hooves clopping along; a goat then finds her three kids bleating merrily. The pattern progresses until 10 kits scamper up to surround one sleeping rabbit. Martin-Larrañaga captures joy and movement in the animals, especially the babies, with each animal outlined in bold, hand-drawn lines. The app presents a pleasing variety of backgrounds and colors while keeping an uncluttered focus on the animals and text. Readers may choose the “noises” option, which automatically plays the animal noises, or the “quiet” version, which only plays the noises when little fingers tap a page. There is no narration, so an adult must read the names aloud and help count the baby animals. This makes for a textbook lap-sit experience, with an adult reading the app along with a baby or toddler. Unfortunately, the text does not encourage interaction, as Noisy Farm (2013) does. Given the simple text, the opportunities for additional languages to be included in updates are great.

A simple concept book well-suited for a shared reading experience with the youngest digerati.