Listen Up!/Con le orecchie di Lupo

PreS—Meet Lupo, a suave and unassuming black wolf (think: dog) who walks around on his hind legs exploring new sounds. He begins in a colorful field filled with flowers, each of which produces a buzzing bee when touched. The screen fills with insects and the buzzing grows louder until viewers are ready to move on with a tap to an arrow. It is that simple, and this is where the joy lies.Lupo then walks a path with birds; if users touch one, the creature will dodge it to avoid a direct hit. Scenes are logically sequenced; a splash of water follows the sound of rain, which follows a cap of thunder, and so on. The background melody is so cheery, only the most harried adult would begrudge the loop. The tune drops away during the interactions with the tap-dancing wolves and the garbage-can orchestra, but listeners will find themselves yearning to hear it again after learning "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on digital water glasses.A narrator introduces the story and reads the minimal text as it appears onscreen. Listeners and readers have a choice of hearing (and seeing) the text in English or Italian. There are crunching leaves, honking cars, meowing cats, and more as Lupo travels through his entire day. It's a day with both urban and country adventures, set in bold, bright paper cuttings, against vibrant shades of green, blue, and purple.