Help for grown-ups

Book Sets are bought in the grown-ups panel, never from your child's screens. Open the panel (press and hold the round gear button (top right) until its ring fills), tap Sets & purchases, answer the grown-ups question, then choose a Set on the Book sets screen. Each Set is $9.99 once; All Three Sets is $19.99 (US prices; other countries pay the App Store's equivalent).

Open the grown-ups panel, tap Sets & purchases, answer the grown-ups question, and tap Restore purchases at the top right of the Book sets screen. Make sure the iPad is signed in to the same Apple Account that made the purchase. There is no Popfables account and nothing else to sign in to.

Restoring needs the internet once. After that, your books work offline.

Yes. Every Set supports Family Sharing, so one purchase covers the iPads of everyone in your Family Sharing group, as long as the family organiser has purchase sharing turned on (Settings › your name › Family › Purchase Sharing). If a family member's iPad still shows the books as waiting for a grown-up, tap Restore purchases on that iPad.

No. The Moon's Little Lantern is free, and the book Sets are one-time purchases that are yours to keep. There are no ads, and your child never sees a price.

Purchases are handled by Apple, so refunds are too. You can ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Requires iPad (9th generation) or newer. The storyteller's voice is made on the iPad itself, which needs the memory and speed of iPad (9th generation) and later models, with iPadOS 26 or later. The App Store can't block every older model exactly, so an iPad (8th generation) may still be able to install Popfables, but it isn't supported and the storyteller may not work well on it. You'll find your iPad's model in Settings › General › About.

Popfables is for iPad only. It isn't available for iPhone, Mac or Android.

About 400 MB, most of it the storyteller's voice, so the books can be read aloud without the internet. Saved stories add very little. Wi-Fi is easiest for the first download.

No. After it's installed, Popfables works without the internet: on a plane, in the car or in a tent. Every story is already in the app, and the storyteller reads it aloud right on the iPad.

It goes online only to talk to Apple: at most once a day to ask whether a new version is ready, and in the grown-ups' Sets screen for prices and purchases. The privacy policy has the details.

New book Sets come in app updates. Most iPads install App Store updates automatically. When a new version is ready, a note appears in the grown-ups panel (never on your child's screens). Your saved stories, pins and purchases stay through every update.

In the grown-ups panel, find the story under Saved stories and tap Delete. To remove a child, go to Children and tap Remove. To remove everything, delete the app; your purchases stay with your Apple Account and can be restored.

Yes. Add each child under Children in the grown-ups panel. Popfables then asks “Who's reading?” and each child taps their own picture, and keeps their own pins, story memory and Read to me setting.

Check that Read to me is on (the book button at the top of the screen) and that the iPad's volume is up. If the storyteller can't read a page, the story still appears, ready to read together. Closing and reopening Popfables usually helps. If it keeps happening, please write to us.

From 7 pm to 6 am, Bedtime turns on by itself: softer, slower music, calm motion and a quiet finish. Tap the moon or the sun at the top of the screen to switch it.

Yes. Turn on Calm motion in the grown-ups panel for gentler page turns and a steadier camera. Popfables also follows your iPad's Reduce Motion setting (Settings › Accessibility › Motion).

English, for now: the stories and the storyteller's voice.