Your child can offer a book they made to the shared library for other children to read, and a person on our staff reads every book first. This page is about that. Giving one person outside TaleTykes a code for one book is a separate thing with a separate switch, and it is in Sending a book to someone. Around the library there is a small community of made-up reader names, hearts, comments and a weekly board. Sharing, comments and the weekly board can each be turned off for each reader.
The community is not open yet. It starts once the updated notice to parents that describes it is in force and you have agreed to it. Until then your child uses the library as before, without comments, hearts that count or the weekly board, and the "Comments" and "Weekly board" switches below do nothing. Sharing books works before then only for a reader whose sharing you switched on yourself.
Reader names
Other children never see your child's first name. They see a reader name we make up from two word lists and a two-digit number, such as "Brave Otter 42", with an animal picture that is not your child's sign-in picture. Nobody types it, so it cannot contain a real name or a way to reach anyone, and it leads only to a page of that reader's approved shared books.
Your child gets one the first time a book they shared is approved, they write a comment, or they appear on the weekly board. You can press "Pick a different name" up to 3 times in 30 days, and choose the picture.
Hearts and "Not for me"
On a library book your child can press "I love it" or "Not for me".
- A heart from another family counts towards how loved a shared book is. On the book itself, children see this only in words: "Readers love this one" from 3 hearts, and "Lots of readers love this one" from 20.
- "Not for me" is never shown to anybody. It moves that book to the end of the library for your child, leaves it out of their suggestions, and lowers it in the library's order.
Until you have agreed to the updated notice, hearts and "Not for me" stay within your family.
Comments
Readers aged 5 and up can write a comment of 2 to 140 characters about another reader's book on the shared shelf, up to 6 in 10 minutes and 20 in a day. There are no replies, no messages between children and no dates. Only signed-in readers aged 5 and up, whose family has agreed to the notice and whose "Comments" switch is on, can read comments.
Every comment is checked before it appears:
- If the checks find nothing, it is published straight away, without a person reading it first.
- If it holds anything that could identify or reach a person, such as your child's or a family member's name, an age, a school, where someone lives, a phone number, an email address, a link or a username, it is refused and its words are not kept. Your daily safety note lists it as "an address or a phone number", without the words.
- If the checks are unsure, for example about a common first name, it waits for a person, and your child sees "Someone will read it first."
- If it is unkind or upsetting, your child is asked to say it another way.
Every comment your child has written is listed at the foot of the "Library and other readers" card on their Safety tab, including any waiting for a person, each with a "Take it down" button. Your child can take down their own too, and either way the words go at once.
The weekly board
Readers aged 5 and up can see a board for their own age group, showing reader names and their animal pictures: "Books finished", the ten readers who finished the most books that week, and "Hearts on shared books", the ten whose shared books got the most hearts, with the number of hearts.
In a week when your child has something to count, they also see their own row, with no position beside it if they are outside the ten. The board never says who has gone down. A book counts once a week, and only if most of its pages were read over a reasonable time. The week starts on Monday at midnight Pacific time, and children see the current week only. The rows are deleted after eight weeks, and nothing about the board is ever sent to a child.
The switches
On Readers, choose your child, open Safety, and find "Library and other readers".
| Switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| "Share books to the library" | Your child can offer books to the library |
| "Comments" | Your child can read and write comments |
| "Weekly board" | Your child can see the board and appear on it |
All three are on unless you turn them off. For a reader aged 2 to 5, only "Share books to the library" is shown. Press "Save these switches" after changing them. A new reader name or picture changes straight away.
Younger and older readers
Readers aged 2 to 5 can share books, but they cannot read or write comments and do not see the weekly board.
When a reader turns thirteen, sharing, comments and the weekly board stop for good. Books already in the library stay there, and comments they already wrote stay unless you take them down. See Turning thirteen.
If a book or comment worries your child, they can tell someone.