I think we can all agree that storytime with your kids provides great opportunities for bonding and fostering a love for literacy in your child’s life. What isn’t always a great time, however, is reading the same story countless times over. If you’re looking to put a fresh spin on storytelling, we recommend checking out these storytime apps. By using an app, you’ll have access to thousands of stories, along with plenty of features to help your child engage and interact with what’s being read.
Little Stories
Every child is bound to fall in love with Little Stories, no matter their age. In this award-winning app, you can type in your child’s name and the stories will include your child as a character in the story. With fun illustrations and plenty of songs, Little Stories will become a favorite in any household.
Some of the books on Little Stories are free, and others you’ll need to pay a small fee for. You can also record yourself reading the stories, which is such a neat feature especially when you need to be away from home. Your child will be able to open up the app on a tablet or phone and listen to stories read by you. If grandparents live far away, this is an awesome thing for them to be a part of as well.
Download: Little Stories on Google Play
Vooks
An entire library of fun, animated storybooks, Vooks will quickly become another favorite among your kids. Designed for kids ages 2-8, Vooks focuses on helping children by encouraging imagination and improving literacy at the same time. Vooks is full of family-friendly reads and adds new books every month so there’s always something new.
While Vooks is a subscription-based app, you can download the app and explore 6 titles for free, and you can get a free trial to their subscription service before deciding whether or not you like it. You can also begin with a monthly subscription, or get a bit of a discount by purchasing the annual. Vooks has no ads, and it has offline reading capabilities, which makes it the perfect app for all kinds of traveling from road trips to plane rides.
Download: Vooks on Google Play
Read Along by Google
Haven’t heard of Read Along, by Google? That’s because this is a pretty new app—so new that it’s still in development. Even though they’re still developing it and working out the kinks, you can get early access to the app right now on Google Play. Because it’s in the testing stages, you can almost expect a lot of changes and improvements in the near future.
Once you download Read Along, it can be used entirely offline. And while it works really well for kids who already know their alphabet, this can be a good tool for you to bond with your younger children as well. In addition to storytime books, it has some learning games, and it’s available in a variety of languages. If you’re raising a bilingual child, or your child wants to learn a new language, Read Along may be very helpful for them.
Download: Read Along by Google on Google Play
Booka
Interactive and engaging, Booka has thousands of available titles for your kids to choose from. From popular bestsellers to some of your favorite classics, stories for young kids and stories for older kids, there’s no end to the number of choices in Booka. In addition to bedtime stories, Booka also has educational books and quizzes to help your child learn even beyond the classroom (or the Zoom call).
On Booka, your kids can be read to either from you or the audiobooks, or they can read the stories themselves. If they’re at an age where they are unfamiliar with a lot of words and don’t quite know how to read yet, Booka also offers fun ways for children to learn their letters and numbers through digital flashcards.
Download: Booka on Google Play
Dr. Suess Book Collection #1
On the Google Play Store, you can look up just about any Dr. Suess book and there is most likely an app for it. These typically run between .99 cents and $8.99 per book app, but Dr. Suess also offers some collections, which are a fantastic way to get several of their books digitally, and for less than if you purchase the apps individually. Collection #1, which we are highlighting here, is $14.99.
Dr. Suess Book Collection #1 includes 5 popular stories for young kids: Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The FOOT Book, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, and Fox in Socks. It’s no secret that Dr. Suess’ stories have been much-loved among several generations, and this digital way to enjoy the stories is no different. Your kids will love having storytime with Dr. Suess Book Collection #1 and all the interaction it provides with three different ways to engage in the stories.
Download: Dr. Suess Book Collection #1 on Google Play
KidloLand
If you’ve ever wanted your child to be well-versed in nursery rhymes, this is the storytime app for you! Full of classic and modern nursery rhymes, KidloLand is designed for younger kids (baby to preschool-age), but would also be great for any child who loves to sing.
In addition to simply reading the nursery rhymes, KidloLand puts music to each rhyme, making it easy for kids to memorize them. KidloLand also has features that allow kids to interact with the stories, through tapping the various animations to hear animal sounds and other surprises hidden within the stories.
Download: KidloLand on Google Play
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