Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press and Open Road Media have partnered to bring Scaredy Squirrel to the digital world.

Kids Can Press has released the first Scaredy Squirrel iPhone game app, Scaredy SOS, which is available through the iTunes App Store. Players help Scaredy collect all the lost items from his emergency kit and help him defeat germs, poison ivy and angry unicorns.

In addition to regular e-book format, the first two books in the series, Scaredy Squirrel and Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, will also be available as audio e-books (which include accompanying audio files, so kids can listen and learn as they read) and interactive e-books.

“These new platforms are second nature to children and allow them to learn and experience their favourite stories in new ways,” said Kids Can Press president Lisa Lyons in a statement.

Pablo Defendini and Nicole Passage of NY-based Open Road Media developed the interactive e-book edition, which lets readers trigger animation and audio via the touch screen on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches.

The Open Road team wireframed the interactive functionality to determine which parts of the book would be clickable or have sound effects, and worked with Trailer Park for development.

Currently the interactive e-book can be read only on iOS devices, though, according to Open Road chief marketing officer Rachel Chou, there are plans to develop it for multiple platforms.

The audio e-books are available through Kobo for the Kobo Vox in Canada and can be accessed across multiple devices.

“The world of Scaredy Squirrel is hysterically funny, comforting to every child, and perfect for digital reading,” said Barbara Marcus, strategic advisor for children’s at Open Road Integrated Media, in a statement.

The best-selling children’s series, about a little squirrel’s fear of the unknown, is written and illustrated by Montreal’s Melanie Watt.