‘Peep’ raises squawks of delight

The Learning Channel earns high marks for its smartly structured -- and adorable -- new science-centered animated series, “Peep and the Big Wide World,” the newest addition to TLC’s growing roster of sterling preschool shows, beginning today on the cable channel’s “Ready Set Learn!” weekday programming block. (It also will begin airing on the Discovery Kids channel next Monday.)

Gentle and sweet without stickiness, this deceptively simple show, based on animator Kai Pindal’s creations, uses lessons learned by Peep the chick, Chirp the robin and Quack the duck to impart a sense of discovery and encourage young children to think about the hows and whys of their expanding world.

Peep and pals discover that footprints in the snow, for instance, not only can identify the creature making them -- a bunny, a mouse, a pesky cat -- but also can be followed to find a missing friend. They learn that “the last flower in the world” is really the harbinger of spring’s renewal, and that there’s a link between a skunk’s pungent odor, a bee’s stinger and a porcupine’s quills.

An encounter with a bouncy old mattress and a jack-in-the-box toy in the local dump are other lessons in cause and effect.

The look of the show is coloring book simple, with endearingly rounded characters and an uncluttered pastoral setting deftly rendered in solid colors and black outlines. Joan Cusack’s gently idiosyncratic narration and Taj Mahal’s sunny theme song are inspired touches.

Each show includes lively, “you can try this too,” segments with real kids using their thinking caps as they get creative with found junk, make and identify hand- and footprints and look for signs of spring in the backyard.

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‘Peep and the

Big Wide World’

Where: The Learning Channel (TLC)

When: Weekdays at 8 a.m., premiering today

What else: The show premieres next Monday at 8:30 a.m. on Discovery Kids channel.

Rating: TV-Y (suitable for all age groups)

Joan Cusack...Narrator

Executive producers Marjorie Kaplan, Jessica Hanlon and Kate Taylor