DK PEEKABOO

This six-screen app (free, but nestled among apps to purchase on the Peekaboo! platform) offers toddlers chances to meet and count farm animals, swipe open digital “flaps,” connect dots, color and listen to a sweet-voiced child reader.

Photos of plush farmyard animals are placed against very simple cartoon backdrops and nod or pulse gently as banjos plunk in the background. They pose next to plastic buildings or other obstacles that swing up at a tap to reveal more livestock—or, beneath the last, a toy “Farmer John on his tractor!” The animals all moo, cluck or otherwise express themselves when touched (the tractor starts up for a moment, then dies); tapping any words in the accompanying rhymed text cues repeat pronunciations. Furthermore, a large icon on each screen opens a coloring page, a hide-and-seek game or some other activity, culminating at the end with a quiz (“Which animal says ‘moo’?”) followed by a camera feature for selfies. Any photos or colored pages are stored not in the tablet’s camera roll but within a protected “Family Area” on the app itself, where parents can register, create individual folders for different children and share via social media. A reworked and artfully extended version of the 2011 board book. (iPad toddler app. 6 mos.-2)