Here’s an impressive stat: Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar has been munching his way through books for decades now: the original story was published in 1969.

Now said caterpillar has a new app courtesy of publisher StoryToys. The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends – Play & Explore is actually based on a range of Carle’s books (hence the “Friends”).

What it’s not is a simple appy retelling of the original story. Instead, this offers eight mini-games and creative activities for preschool children, with the Caterpillar joined by Mister Seahorse, The Very Quiet Cricket, Brown Bear and other characters.

Your children will be guiding the caterpillar towards fruits across a garden; playing hide and seek with Mister Seahorse; growing a tiny seed into a flower; gobbling bugs with The Mixed Chameleon and other activities, with digital jigsaw puzzles thrown in for good measure.

The presentation follows previous StoryToys apps: it looks like a pop-up book, with visuals that will instantly bring memories back for parents of the original books.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends – Play & Explore costs £1.99 for iPhone and iPad on Apple’s App Store. On past experience, we suspect an Android version will be on the way too, soon.