EL LIBRO VERDE / THE GREEN BOOK

Simple but very nicely put together, this bilingual picture-book app teaches names of animals that have the color green in common.

Each page of this app, the first in a planned series of Spanish-and-English interactive books for young children, features a green animal against a brightly colored background. The animals, including a parrot (el loro), turtle (la tortuga) and crocodile (el cocodrilo), each have a brief moment of animation. The crocodile snaps its teeth, a frog swallows a fly and so on. The optional narration that accompanies the large, easy-to-read text is read by a child and is basic and consistent. "La rana es verde. The frog is green," one page reads. The repetitive format makes it easy to concentrate on the words and their translations. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and the last pages feature a green dog that, it turns out, should actually be brown. A final page features all the animals together with their accompanying sound effects and animations. Although it is a simple concept, it is designed consistently, with very easy navigation and flawless execution. Even an included coloring game goes above-and-beyond: All the pages can be drawn upon, and the coloring tools include stamps, polka-dot, striped or plaid paints and different sizes of brushes.

The youngest readers may not fully appreciate the careful construction of the app, but parents will be able to detect the deceptively easy-looking effort shown here. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)