Your child's books can read themselves aloud. When your child presses the large play button at the bottom of a page, which a screen reader announces as "Read to me", the page is read out and each word is highlighted and underlined as it is said. The underline means your child can follow along without relying on color.
The tools on every page
- Read to me. The play button starts and pauses the voice. If your child turns the page while the voice is reading, it carries on at the top of the next page. The voice never turns a page by itself unless your child has chosen to just listen.
- Tap any word. Tapping a word says it on its own and opens a small card beside it with a short meaning where we have one. For a reader who is learning to sound words out, the card also shows the sounds the word is made of. For an older reader, a long word may be split into parts instead.
- Words the book set out to teach. A few words on a page may have a dotted line under them. These are words the book was written to teach, and tapping one gives the book's own meaning for it.
- Fade the rest. In the book's "How this looks" panel (the settings button at the top), "Fade the rest" keeps the sentence being read bright and dims the others while the voice is reading. Nothing disappears. It is off until your child turns it on. Paper, spacing and the night light covers the rest of that panel.
- Questions at the end. Pressing "Finish" on the last page leads to a few questions about the story. See Questions at the end of a book.
Which voice reads the book
| Age group | The voice a new book comes with |
|---|---|
| Ages 2 to 5 | A recorded voice, read a little slower than usual |
| Ages 5 to 7 | A recorded voice, read a little slower than usual |
| Ages 7 to 9 | The device's own voice |
| Ages 9 to 12 | The device's own voice |
A recorded voice is made for each page when the book is made, and the highlight follows it word for word. The device's own voice is the one built into your phone, tablet or computer. Where the device reports which word it has reached, the highlight is exact; where it does not, we time the highlight from the length of the words so it still moves along. If a device has no voice at all, the page says "Let's read this one with our eyes." and your child reads it themselves.
If you would like a chapter book read in a recorded voice, you can ask for one. See Having a chapter book read aloud.
A book with a recorded voice also has a headphones button at the top, "Just listen". It puts the words away, darkens the screen and plays the book, turning its own pages. It stops at the last page rather than moving on to the questions. To listen to more than one book, see Listening to books in a row.
Reading a page aloud to Pip
From ages 5 to 7 upwards, the book has a microphone button, "Read this page to Pip". Your child reads the page out loud, a piece at a time. On some goes Pip reads a piece first and your child reads it back. Afterwards Pip says a line, and may offer one word to try again. There is no number, score or timer anywhere on that screen. The microphone is never on while the book's voice is reading, and if your child stops partway, that recording is thrown away rather than sent.
Here is what happens to what your child says:
- The recording goes to be turned into words and is gone as soon as that is done. We never store your child's voice, and we never keep what they said.
- We keep counts and measures: how many words came out as written, how long the reading took and how quickly it went, whether the pauses fell at the full stops and commas, and which words on the page were missed or read differently, by their place on the page.
- You can see how it went on your child's Progress page, under "Reading a page out loud".
The companies that help us run the service are listed in the privacy notice. Reading aloud to Pip is not offered for ages 2 to 5, and we can switch it off for a while; when it is off, the microphone button is not shown.
Reading a book to someone else
At the end of a book, "Read it to someone" opens the same book with no voice and no microphone. Your child reads it out loud to a brother, a sister or a grandparent, and the book only turns the pages. Nothing is heard and nothing is kept.
If something here does not work, ask us from Help in your dashboard.