Superb animation makes Timmy come alive whenever tapped ...

Timmy Tickle is a short, but sweet digital book app for the youngest readers and listeners. A simple story about an adorable octopus is accompanied by stunning 3-D computer animation. Timmy wears roller skates, plays dress up and even does the dishes (although he does break quite a few). The story explores numbers, colors, and musical notes among other early learning topics.

In the latest update, Timmy has gotten a lot of new enhancements to his storybook, including a change in the text to make it more engaging for young readers. There are also nice sounds to let children know when they have completed the interactive elements correctly on each page, making this title intuitive enough even for todders. The animation is superb, making Timmy come alive whenever tapped. The interactivity is mostly just fun, but does include some reinforcement of colors, numbers and even an assortment of fruit. I found this app a bit too stimulating for bedtime reading, but for any other time of day it is delightful.

Page turn is by simple arrows and the easy-to-read text highlights sentence by sentence in time with the narration. While word-for-word narration would be nicer, the book is solidly made overall with ample settings, including a page guide. The app also has no links that lead outside the app, something I appreciate as a parent. There are also now 8 coloring pages as an extra with this app, providing a nice extension activity.

Overall this is a perfect app for toddlers and preschoolers but doesn't have a lot of content, especially for kids over 5. But with computer animation this cool, even older readers will have a hard time not paging through this app at least once (or finding a little kid to share it with as an excuse to play with it again themselves)

[Re-review after update - previous review published 8/31/2011]

All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.