The problem with pop-up books in the real world is that they don’t always cope with rough handling by kids.

We had one book about tadpoles whose frogs-bursting-out climax was rather less exciting once the frogs had been literally ripped out, for example.

In the apps world, that’s not a worry: books that pop up stay popping up for as long as they’re installed on your smartphone and tablet. Such is the case with Beauty and the Beast, the latest 3D tale from publisher StoryToys.

The fairytale is familiar even if you haven’t watched the Disney film: the romance between beautiful Belle and the rather less-beautiful Beast (who’s actually a handsome prince who’s been uglified by an evil witch).

As with previous StoryToys apps, this is all presented as a virtual book on-screen. Some pages have pictures, text and voice narration (although no word-highlighting), while others – eight in all – have pop-up animated scenes with interactivity.

The first example of the latter sees the prince trapped inside a rock by the witch. Kids have to tap on the rock to help him escape, revealing the Beast.

The second involves sorting leaves into coloured piles for Belle, the third helping the merchant escape from a wolf, and so on. There’s even a scene where you play table tennis against the Beast, with prompts showing children where to place the bat.

It’s very well done: the interactive bits are simple enough for young children to grasp and succeed at, rather than full mini-games that might get frustrating. They can also experiment with tapping on bits of scenery to make sounds.

The background music is suitably atmospheric for a fairytale, although you can turn it off if you find it intrusive, and there’s a choice of English, French, German or Spanish languages

We like the Parent Center feature too: a button on the app’s homescreen which has to be pressed for three seconds to work, as a way of ensuring kids don’t accidentally access it.

Within the Parent Center, you can sign up for StoryToys’ mailing list to be kept informed about new apps, read the app’s provacy policy, and turn on or off features like update messages, App Store links and the More Apps screen, as well as switching between Read to Me, Read it Myself and Autoplay modes for different-aged children.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when searching for fairytales on the App Store or Google Play, as there are so many – and a lot of poor-quality ones. StoryToys have a well-deserved reputation for quality though, which Beauty and the Beast lives up to.

Download links
iPhone and iPad (£2.99) / Android (£2.99)