Trying out new cocos2d book

I am giving Steffen Itterheim's new book "Learn iPhone and iPad cocos2d Game Development" a try. I can't find it in hardcover, so I bought a digital copy.

I am considering it for teaching a three week course on iOS game programming to HS students - right now, it appears to be the only book on the subject out there. (I am looking forward to Rod Strougo's book, but it isn't due until March.)

So far, the books seems like an authoritative resource, but it starts off a bit slow - there are three chapters of background information before we start writing our first real program in Chapter 4. But that program is a good one, and it might be the place to start - with the understanding that we need to take some things at face value and expect explanations later.

There is an interesting point I've found in this chapter of Itterheim - on page 76, he explains why you shouldn't use actions to move a player's sprite if you are going to be making frame-by-frame adjustments: they won't work. By the time the computer is ready to animate the first step in the action, you are telling to quit that action and start another one. So nothing happens. This makes a lot of sense. However, as a teacher, I wonder: why teach actions first then?

Still, it's a good resource so far. I don't know whether we can get hardcopies in time for the class, which starts Jan. 3, but maybe we can get by with the electronic version.