LITTLE WHO WHO

A young owl wants to visit all his forest friends before he settles down to sleep.

Sweet little Who Who asks his mother, “Can I go to say good night / to my forest friends / to help them sleep tight?” As Who Who visits his friends, young readers are reminded of their own nighttime routines. Tim Rabbit is taking a bath, Boris Bear must brush his teeth, and Spike Hedgehog carefully combs his spines. Who Who returns home too sleepy to do his own chores, but his mother reassures him, “in the end / the most important thing / is to be a good friend.” The colorful cartoon illustrations and animations will keep young readers happily tapping away, but the story’s pacing is slowed down by the overlong and clumsily rhymed text. The navigation works smoothly in the AutoPlay and Read to Me modes, but young readers cannot control the (glacial) speed at which stanzas advance within a page in the Read to Myself option. A classic memory game with three levels of difficulty extends the story. The cheerful, soothing narration matches the tone nicely.

A well-intentioned story that could benefit from the old injunction to show, not tell.