How it works
Read a whole book before knowing a single letter sound.
Every letter is a picture of the thing it starts with
The a is an apple, the b a bee, the n a ninja — each drawn inside the letter's own shape, in Andika, the font USAID's guidance on early reading materials recommends for beginning readers. Someone who has never been taught a sound can still make something of c a t.
Then the pictures fade
Full picture → coloured in → flat colour → plain ink. Common letters fade first, and the fade follows how many times a child has already seen that letter — not how far through the book they are. By the last levels they are reading ordinary black type, in full sentences.
Tapping any letter, on any page, brings its picture back and plays its sound.
Sounds, never names
Tap m and you hear mmm, not "em". Letter names get in the way of blending a word.
What it doesn't have
- No points, stars, streaks or badges
- No timers and no pressure
- No ads and no in-app purchases
- No accounts and no data collection (see privacy)
- No fast motion, no loud sounds, no autoplay
When a book ends there is a picture, and then the words you read. Nothing cheers and nothing is counted — it should feel like closing a book, not clearing a level.
Using it together
Five or ten minutes at a time is plenty, and a young reader does best with someone beside them. If a letter stumps them, let them tap the letter.
There's no assessment here and no right pace. It's for anyone learning to read — no age it starts at, none it stops at. If a reader is already sounding words out confidently they've outgrown the early levels; start further along.
Not doing screens yet?
Fair enough. There's a print-at-home page — the same letter pictures and the same first words, on paper. A child can meet the whole cast and read cat without a device in the house.
Made for everyone
It's built for any beginner, and a few of the ordinary decisions here matter more to some readers than others — a dyslexic reader, a low-vision reader, anyone who needs longer:
- Letters that don't mirror each other. Andika keeps b, d, p and q apart by shape rather than by flipping one form, and uses the single-storey a and g children are taught to write.
- Big, widely spaced, never in caps. Reading text is set large with generous letter spacing, in dark ink on a warm off-white page rather than white glare.
- A second way in for every letter. Each has its own colour, but colour is never the only signal: the picture inside carries the meaning, so it holds up for a colour-blind reader.
- Sound on demand, and only on demand. A tap plays the letter's sound; nothing plays on its own, and the app works fully with the sound off.
- No clock. Nothing advances, expires or moves by itself, so a page can be sat with for as long as it takes.
It isn't a treatment, a test or a diagnosis, and it won't tell you whether a reader has dyslexia — it is a book that waits. More detail on the accessibility page, including what still needs work: screen-reader labelling isn't finished. If you use assistive technology with a reader and something blocks you, tell us — that goes to the top of the list.