VEGGIE BOTTOMS

A lowest-common-denominator approach to getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies.

Many a parent has employed special tactics to convince picky kids to eat their broccoli and blueberries. But this may be the first time the selling point is bottoms. As in butts, rear ends, derrières. Yes, this storybook app aims to interest kids in fruits and vegetables by focusing on the shapes, textures and sizes of their heinies. All but one of the book’s 16 pages focus on one fruit or vegetable, accompanied by a few facts and a description of its butt. Thomas P. Coconut, for example, has a hairy bottom. Gus Phineas Asparagus has a skinny bottom, and he warns that if you eat him, he’ll make your pee stink. Forelle Pear has a large, spotted bottom, and so on. Two of the four icons at the base of each page are navigation tools, one prompts narration, and the fourth causes characters to spin around and show their rumps. Some of the swipe and shake features are clever: With a few of the characters, narration is muffled until the shell, skin or pod is opened.

Kids may learn a thing or two about fruits and vegetables here. But selling it to them via potty humor seems rather desperate. (iPad storybook app. 4-7).