Best reading apps for kids

The Reading Realm, £2.99, Apple (iPad only)

The Reading Realm is a really useful app for linking reading with comprehension, spelling, grammar and other essential primary school literacy skills.

It features excerpts from hundreds of children’s books, ranging from classics like The Little Princess to modern titles like The Shadow Keeper. Each text is accompanied by a short description and a variety of literacy exercises for your child to choose from, arranged into different ‘realms:’ Discussion (e.g. making a mind map of words and ideas connected to the excerpt), Muddled (unscrambling words to make a sentence), Missing (filling in the missing words and punctuation), Rainbow (matching a word with its word class), Spelling (spelling words from the text) and Quiz (comprehension questions).

You can search for texts by age (five to 13+) or by genre: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The app also gives your child a daily reading challenge, such as ‘read a book recommended by a friend,’ and recommendations for further reading based on the book extracts they’ve enjoyed.

Me Books and Me Books Plus, US$2.49 per month, Apple and Android

Me Books and Me Books Plus are complementary interactive storytelling apps for children aged four and over that help link learning and listening through read-along audio. They’re also recommended by the National Literacy Trust.

There are over 400 books for your child to explore, from Peppa Pig and Dora the Explorer to the Famous Five and the Beano – including titles from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme, which many schools use to teach children to read. Your child can search by theme, values or age range to collect their own library. Each book has a voiceover (with some famous voices including Benedict Cumberbatch) which your child can activate by tapping the page so they can read along, or they can choose to read independently.

Me Books Plus has added features including the option for your child to record their own audio, listen to sound effects and explore ‘hotspots’ (interactive elements) on the page.

Books need to be downloaded so your child can read when they don’t have internet access, but bear in mind they’ll use up storage space, so you may have to prune your child’s library if you’re short of memory.

BookZilla, free, Apple and Android

Some children finish books in record time and are always looking for their next read, while others find it hard to choose books that engage them. Whichever camp your child falls into, BookZilla is brilliant for broadening their reading horizons.

Aimed at children age nine plus, the BookZilla app will help your child choose new books to read, based on their interests and books they’ve enjoyed. They can set up a profile and select which categories they’re interested in, from heartbreakers to graphic novels. The app will then suggest other titles that they might enjoy, as well as ‘out of the box’ ideas that they might not have considered, with a synopsis of each, so they can buy them in print or on another book app.

When your child finds a book they like the look of, they can add it to their reading list. They can also log books that they’ve read, review them and share their thoughts with other app users, and set themselves challenges, for example to read five books by a certain date.

Bear in mind that the app is designed for tween/teen/young adult readers, and may therefore suggest books that may be best suited to older kids, so it’s worth keeping an eye on their reading list.

Skybrary, US$3.99 per month, Apple

Skybrary will appeal to children who like to be in charge of their own learning, letting them pilot their hot air balloon through seven magical islands, each of which has its own collection of books for them to explore.

There are fiction and non-fiction books for children of all primary-school ages, from respected publishers like National Geographic Kids and Britannica. Your child can choose the books they’d like to read, and either read them independently or have them narrated. You can also compile a reading list for your child by adding up to five books at a time to their ‘backpack’. There’s a focus on books that celebrate family, diversity and the wider world, as well as accompanying ‘video field trips’ to help your child take a look at subjects in more depth – many of which will complement primary school topics.

You can add up to three children at a time, each with their own reading profile. One thing to be aware of is that the app is American, so the narration has an American accent, and you’ll need to look out for US spellings.

BorrowBox, free, Apple and Android

BorrowBox allows your child (and you!) to borrow e-books and audiobooks from your local library and read them on a phone or tablet.

You’ll need to register for a library card first, then use your login details to browse titles from every section of the library, including picture books, first readers, chapter books, young adult fiction, graphic novels and more. Your library will specify how many books you can have on loan at any one time, and remind you when it’s time to virtually return them. Books are easy for your child to navigate by swiping to turn the pages.

Some libraries use different apps that function in a similar way, such as Overdrive: ask your local library which it uses.

Teach Your Monster To Read: Reading for Fun, free, Apple

From the charity behind the award-winning Teach Your Monster to Read (one of our favourite phonics apps for kids) comes a new game that helps children develop a love of reading. Perfect for new readers, it gamifies reading practice designed with experts from Roehampton University to get kids reading more, boost their confidence and inspire a lifelong love of reading.

Your child will create their own monster and take them to explore a magical village full of fascinating facts and spellbinding stories, making friends with plenty of colourful characters along the way. By completing reading tasks they'll be able to collect over 70 brilliant free ebooks (from Usborne, Okido, Otter-Barry and more) to add to their monster’s bookshelf. Every interaction involves reading, from following signposts and checking the village noticeboard to reading aloud with librarian Goldspear.

The game encourages children of all ages to read for pleasure, helping them build empathy by putting themselves in different characters' shoes.