Questions

It is time on a screen, but we think the minutes matter less than what fills them. Pediatric guidance now looks at what is on the screen, who is in the room, and what the screen is taking the place of. A TaleTykes book has no feed behind it and nothing plays by itself, and the screen stops when the book does. Our screen time page says more, including the features we chose not to build.

You can set a bedtime window for each child. Inside it, the screen dims to a warm night light, the voice slows down, and a sleep timer ends the reading rather than leaving your child to decide when to stop. You can also set a daily reading limit. When it runs out, the app says the books will be here later, and then it stops.

We never send anything to a child. There are no push notifications of any kind, and a test fails the build if a request for push permission appears anywhere in the part of the product children use. Every message we send is an email to a grown-up. Emails about your own account always come: your plan and its payments, a book that needs you, security and safety. Book news and getting-started notes come until you switch them off. A weekly summary, a bedtime reminder and news from us are off until you switch them on. Each of those five carries a link to switch it off again. Your child won't find points, scores or timers anywhere. When they read several days in a row, we mention it as a plain fact. We never use that to ask for another day, and it never brings up a day they missed.

TaleTykes is a reading app. We write and illustrate a new picture book or chapter book for your child at the reading level they have actually reached, then read it along with them one word at a time. Your child picks who is in the story and where it happens by tapping pictures. There is no typing and no spelling.

We write books for four age groups: two to five, five to seven, seven to nine, and nine to twelve. The length, the number of illustrations, whether there are chapters, and how much can go wrong in the story all change with the group. Read-along and decodable text help most while your child is still learning to read. The oldest group gets chapter books with choices in them.

It takes three taps. Your child picks from pictures who is in the story and where it happens, we write and illustrate the book for their level, and then they read it. Your child can also use their own words in a few places, such as saying how their own story should start or, from age seven, adding something they like to their list. We check those words before they reach a story, and a name for the main character is limited to what a name can be.

No. TaleTykes runs in a web browser on a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, so nothing has to be installed and nothing has to be kept up to date. There is an app for iPhone and iPad as well, with the same account and the same books behind it, for families who would rather open one. On any other device, saving the site to a home screen opens it the same way. You can also keep a book so that it opens with no internet connection at all, which is what you need on a long journey.

Pip is the character who guides a child who can't read the buttons yet. Pip speaks once when a screen opens, then goes quiet, and never claims to be a friend, a pet or a person. If something can't be done, Pip says so plainly and doesn't suggest a way round it.

TaleTykes is a DBA of Optiarms, Inc., a C corporation. Optiarms, Inc. is the company behind TaleTykes. We make the books and answer your emails, and we are responsible for your account and everything your family keeps here. The company's full details are in our terms and our privacy notice.

Two things make text harder: longer sentences and less familiar words. We measure both in every book before we illustrate it, and we store a grade estimate, a reading measure in the style schools use, and a banding letter. If a draft does not match the level it was written for, we rewrite it before a single picture is drawn.

Yes. We follow a systematic order of letter sounds, the one schools teach them in, and we keep track of which ones your child has and which they have not. For the age group still learning to decode, the writing aims for at least nineteen words in twenty to be ones they can sound out from the sounds they have been taught, and a draft that misses is written again. The rest are a small set learned by sight, the names of the characters and the odd word a story cannot do without. A story is also built round the particular sound they are working on, so the practice happens inside a book they wanted to read rather than beside it. Older readers who are still finding long words hard get the same thing at their own level: the sounds that make long words possible, inside a story written for their age.

There is a short set of word games, offered once a day and easy to walk past. Your child is taught one letter sound, practices it with help and then without, and tries it on a word that is not a real word, which is the only way to tell whether they are using the letters or remembering the shape of a word they have seen before. It needs no microphone and takes a few minutes. Nothing is scored, counted or timed, and your child is never shown how they did.

We can't promise that. What we can describe is what the product does: it teaches letter sounds explicitly and in the order schools commonly teach them, it checks every word of an early reader against the sounds your child has been taught, it notices which sounds trip them up when they read aloud, and it brings those sounds back round again. Those are the things reading research says matter. Whether they add up to a difference for your particular child is a question about your child, and it needs a proper study rather than our word for it. We have written down how we would run one, and we will tell you if we ever do.

We highlight and underline each word as your child hears it, so they never have to rely on seeing a color to follow along. Tapping any word says it aloud, shows the sounds it is made of, and gives a short meaning. Reading while listening helps with pace and expression, and seeing the word at the same moment helps your child remember it.

We built it around the two things that usually put a child off: a book that is too hard, and a book about something they do not care about. Every story is written at a level your child can manage and about what they chose. We cannot promise your child will want to read. There are stickers for what they have done, and your child never loses one they have earned. A run of days that breaks simply starts again. We never message a child asking them to come back, and the stickers are never compared: no other child appears beside a sticker or a run of days. The one place readers do appear in an order is a weekly board for their own age group. It is kept deliberately small, it does not start until you have agreed to the notice to parents that describes it, and you can turn it off for any reader.

Yes. Inside the book, your child can choose cream, white, mist or night paper, or one of four soft tints, and normal, roomy or airy line spacing. The typeface and the text size, which can go up to half again as large, are part of your settings. Lexend is the default, because the evidence for it is the strongest. We offer OpenDyslexic because some readers prefer it, though research has not shown that it improves reading.

We write and illustrate each one from scratch, following what your child chose and the rules for their age group. We don't draw on a collection of stories written in advance, which is why your child can be the character and why no two books turn out the same.

They are safe only when they are checked, and checking is where most of our work goes. Every story passes four levels of checking before anyone sees it, starting with the cheapest: a word list that matches whole words rather than fragments, a scoring step that weighs a concern against the age the story was written for, a closer look at anything near the line, and a person for anything still unclear. If a check can't finish, the story waits.

One of us reads every book before other children on TaleTykes can see it. Offering books stays off for a reader unless you turn it on, and none of the shared library starts until you have agreed to the notice to parents that describes it. Separately, if you turn it on, your child can make a code for a book of their own and give it to somebody outside TaleTykes, such as a grandparent; nobody on our staff reads a book before that, because it goes to one person your family chose rather than to children you have never met, and you can switch it off again or stop any code from that reader's page. Other children never see the name of your child: a shared book carries a reader name we make up, such as Brave Otter 42, and an animal picture. Books your child keeps to themselves are checked automatically rather than read by one of us.

No check of this kind is perfect, so we don't rely on one alone. A person reviews every book before other children can see it. Every shared book has a report button, and a person reads each report. You also have your own controls for turning off themes, characters and sharing.

No. Nobody we work with is allowed to train on it, and that is written into our contract with each of them. We never sell it. Making a book does mean sending the story your child chose, and the book that comes back, to the companies that write it, draw it and check it. The privacy notice names every one of them, what each receives and how long they keep it. Learning from what they enjoy inside the product stays off until you turn it on, and turning it off again removes what we learned.

We hold a first name, or whatever you choose to call your child, an age band, the month and year they were born only if you choose to give them (never the day), whether they are a boy or a girl only if you choose to say (never pronouns), an animal picture chosen for them, a hashed way of signing in, the books they made and read, and the choices they made from the picture menus. If you send us a photo of a drawing they made, we keep a copy of that drawing too. We hold no email address, no surname and no location, we never ask for the day your child was born, and we never ask for a photograph of your child. The month and year, if you give them, are used only to move your child up an age group on their birthday and to know when they turn thirteen; they never go to the companies that write and draw the books, and they are deleted when your child turns thirteen. Boy or girl, if you say, is used only so a hero your child names is called "he" or "she"; only that word goes to the companies that write the books, and it is never counted or shown to a school. If you choose to add one as their picture instead of an animal, it stays inside your family: it is shown only on your own family's screens, never to other children, and it never goes to the companies that write and draw the books. There is no field for a surname anywhere, so a surname can never leak.

We collect nothing about your child until we have verified an adult, and that check runs at the point where the record would be written, as well as on the page. We give you a notice of what we collect before you consent to it. A scheduled job deletes anything that has passed its time limit.

You can turn off any themes or characters you would rather not see, and set a daily limit, after which Pip says it is time for a rest and offers no way to extend it. You decide whether your child may share anything at all: offering a book to the shared library stays off for a reader unless you turn it on, and none of the shared library starts until you have agreed to the notice to parents that describes it. Giving somebody outside TaleTykes a code for one book is a separate switch, which also stays off unless you turn it on, and every code your child has made is listed for you with a button to stop it. Learning from what your child enjoys is off until you turn it on. From your dashboard you can also end every signed-in session on every device.

There are no notifications and no advertising, ever. There are stickers and a count of the days read in a row, and these follow three rules. First, nothing is ever lost. A run that breaks starts again at one, nothing they have earned turns gray, and we keep the longest run your child has had. Second, we don't send it to them. A child gets no push notifications or emails from us, and no reminder on a day they haven't read, so they only see their stickers while already holding a book. Third, nothing about them is compared. No other child appears beside a sticker, a run of days or a challenge, and there is no average. The one place readers are compared is a weekly board for their own age group. It is kept small on purpose, it does not start until you have agreed to the notice to parents that describes it, and you can turn it off for any reader. We encourage re-reading because it helps, and it earns a sticker of its own.

Yes. You can invite another adult to read along, and they see your readers, your books and how the reading is going. They cannot change anything, cannot add or remove a reader, cannot see your payments or your consents, and cannot invite anybody else. Those limits are enforced in our database as well as on the page, and you can stop the sharing with a single press.

If you tell us when that is, we stop treating your child as a child on that day. We measure nothing more about their reading, we stop basing suggestions on what they have read, and their books can no longer go to the shared library. Every book they made stays, and they carry on reading. We tell you a month beforehand, and there is no switch to turn the measuring back on, because the permission you gave was for a child. We ask for a month and a year and keep neither. What we store is the day it happens.

There are two plans. Sprout costs $18.99 a month for 4 books and up to 2 children. Grove costs $34.99 a month for 8 books and up to 4 children, and it adds longer chapter books and series that keep the same characters. The books are shared across your whole family. You can add a reader to either plan for $7.99 a month, and each one adds 2 books a month: Sprout takes one more, and Grove takes up to 4 more, for 8 children in all. Paying yearly saves you the cost of 2 months against paying monthly.

Yes. It lasts 3 days and includes 2 books. You add a card to start it. You choose Sprout or Grove as you start it. When the free days end, that plan starts by itself on that card, at $18.99 a month for Sprout or $34.99 for Grove. We email you before that happens, and if you cancel first you are not charged for the plan.

Yes. Adding a card starts your free days, and your plan carries on from it when they end unless you cancel first. We email you before that happens. Card details go to our payment provider and never to us.

Yes, and they need no account. A gift is a one-off payment for a set number of books. Nothing renews, and it arrives as a code valid for 2 years. You enter the code in your settings and we add the books. Whoever bought it never learns anything about your child, and we keep a one-way hash of their email address rather than the address itself.

You can add extra books at any time, and they never expire. Packs start at 10 books for $47.99. A picture book uses one and a longer chapter book uses two. The monthly allowance resets rather than rolling over, and the extra books you buy stay until you use them.

Books you have already made stay readable while the account is open. If you close the account, your child's books, pictures and profile go thirty days later, and the delay is there so you can change your mind. Two things outlast that on purpose: records of the job that made a book and of mail we sent you, which go at ninety days, and the record of the consent you gave, which we keep because it is the evidence that we asked for it. We never charge you for a book that fails to finish.