My Lil’ Books - The Farm Review

My Lil’ Books - The Farm is a lovely interactive universal app that teaches about animals who live on a farm. Being a bilingual app, both English and French languages are offered.

There are many apps available about animals who live on farms. This may seem monotonous to adults browsing through iTunes, yet I believe this just gives parents the ability to be very selective with the farm animal app they choose to download. Personally, I am always curious to see how developers make their app different from the rest as the basic information given many times will be the same in each application, being usually the names, images, and sounds that animals found on a farm make.

My Lil’ Farm does a really nice job making its app special as the illustrations are very well-drawn, fun and with a touch of whimsey, making this app a favorite farm application for both my son and myself.

This app contains two basic sections, the interactive farm animal section where one can learn about the chosen animal’s sounds as well as work on well-done interactions involving this animal and a game called “misfits” where the player scrolls through halves of two animals looking for the correct front and back to match together, creating some funny half-creatures along the way.

This app opens up with a farm scene which includes ten animals who can be tapped to start the interactive section, or tap an icon for the misfits game at the bottom of the screen. This app is nicely intuitive, and the developers have very thoughtfully designed this application with many spoken prompts, allowing non-readers to fully enjoy this app without needing any aid from adults.

Once an animal is chosen, the next screen appears with white background and a large illustration of the chosen animal whose name is narrated and which can be tapped to hear this animal’s noise. The illustrations are really cute and fun to look at, with some especially nice facial expressions on some of these animals, adding a tender layer to this simple and very sweet app.

On the top left corner, one can tap a panel which brings the player to a full color page that has a specific interaction per each animal included. These interactions vary nicely, and I appreciate this interface as these illustrations become seamlessly animated with the touch of the player. One can paint a cow who has lost color in his patches and the rest of his body, help a pig search for apples through a mud pile, or help a goat eat leaves from a tree by building a rock wall for him to climb. When finished with a specific animal, one can use arrows to go back and forth to other animal selections or go to the home farm page and make choices from there.

I really like the prompts used which explain how to complete each interaction, and I enjoy a great deal watching my son’s face as he follows precisely these spoken directions, a good skill for him to flex as he begins going to school. It may be a nice idea to be able to turn off the prompts in the sound section where the name and sounds of animals can be explored since after playing once, my son understood how to navigate this app and the explanation can distract from hearing the name and sound the animal makes.

The Misfits section is also not exactly a new idea in animal apps, as one must scroll through and match the front and back of animal choices. The Misfits section is a lot of fun, however, and it is beautifully illustrated and also full of whimsy, standing out over many apps of this nature. I also like how the animal word will be spelled correctly when both halves are complete, but as you mix and match parts, you can create unique animals and see what their names are as both animal words are now combined.

Corresponding halves of each animal such as a goat/sheep combination become a “goep” or a hen/duck mixture becomes a “heck.” Once an animal is properly completed, the narrator announces the animal’s name. It would also be fun if the new animal mixture word could also be tapped to hear, just for fun.

My son has known his animals for a long time but is still interested in the clever interactions. I think this is a nice choice for those looking for a farm application as I enjoy this app myself.