THE WITCH OF THE TUILERIES

Two young snoops spy on an old lady they (wrongly) suspect of being a witch in this short, mildly sweet import.

In just 12 cartoon-style scenes, the tale takes sibs Apolline and Léon from a park bench on which a fierce-looking babushka leaves a tantalizing trunk. They open it and find, to their surprise, not toads and spiders but a book with musical notations. They follow her to her nearby apartment, where they discover that she's really a music teacher friendly enough to invite them in and set them to dancing with a merry tune on her violin. Page transitions and the small, scattered animations are stiff, but the teacher owns several musical instruments that can actually be played in a rudimentary way. The varied assortment of other touch- or tilt-activated effects elsewhere is highlighted by that trunk—from which hordes of imaginary spiders and "toads" (actually frogs), which the two children fear are inside, spring out as quickly as little fingertips can tap. The drop-down text and (optional) audio narration are available in no fewer than nine languages.

Too brief to stir more than momentary attention from young readers, but well stacked with touch-activated sounds and features.