A sky full of English stories, read word by word

Class Readers is a learn-to-read app for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. It has over 150 original, illustrated English storybooks arranged as 12 reading levels, shown in the app as 12 islands in a Reading Sky. Children read along while every word lights up as it is spoken, listen to the story, record their own voice and finish with a short quiz. Their own crow grows from an egg to a graduate as they complete levels.

Class Readers is made by Classreaders OÜ, an education technology (EdTech) startup based in Tallinn, Estonia and recognised by Startup Estonia. The company works at the meeting point of children's reading, learning design and artificial intelligence, and is the AI education partner in UNIFIER, a European Union–funded Horizon Europe research project.

Class Readers is designed for children ages 3 to 10 who are learning to read English. Level 1 starts with 6-page picture books and 2 to 8 words a page; Level 12 has 22-page stories. It works for native English speakers and for children learning English as a second or foreign language.

Each level is an island in the Reading Sky, from Meadow Island (Level 1) to Castle Island (Level 12). Page counts, words per page, sentence length and grammar grow a little at a time, so moving up never feels like a jump. Start where your child can enjoy a page with a little help: if they read most of it comfortably, you have found the right island. A level is complete after 10 books, or all of them when a level has fewer.

Yes. Narration models natural pronunciation while each word highlights on screen, so children do not need an English-speaking adult beside them. The Words list on every page lets them hear new words and their meanings, vocabulary repeats and grows level by level, and recording their own voice gives them a safe place to practise speaking English.

Read-along narration means the story is read aloud while each word lights up at the moment it is spoken, karaoke style. Seeing and hearing a word together links print to sound, builds a natural reading rhythm and models pronunciation. In "Read to me" mode the narration waits until the picture has loaded, and on early levels each page stays on screen long enough to enjoy the illustration before it turns.

Yes. "Record me" lets your child read the story aloud and play it back. Hearing their own voice helps children notice pace and expression and builds confidence, especially when English is not spoken at home.

Yes, and they are gentle by design. Every child has their own crow that grows one stage for each completed reading level, from Egg to Graduate. Each book earns up to three stars: one for reading it, one for listening along or recording, and one for a quiz with no mistakes, plus feathers. There are no leaderboards, no streaks that punish a day off and nothing to buy with feathers.

Children see a simple "Me" page with their crow, books read, stars and reading days, without charts. Behind a grown-up check, the Grown-ups area shows books finished, read-alouds heard, recordings, quiz answers right, a month-by-month chart, reading days over the last four weeks and progress through the levels.

Yes. From 8 pm to 7 am the Reading Sky turns into a calm night sky with stars, which makes bedtime reading feel cosy. Grown-ups can switch the night sky off in Settings.

Class Readers runs on iPhone and iPad from the App Store and on Android phones and tablets from Google Play. On iPad and tablets, books open as a two-page picture book with page turns you can drag with a finger. The app needs an internet connection to load books and narration; offline downloads are not offered at the moment.

Selected books are free with narration, recording and quizzes. Class Readers Premium unlocks every book on all 12 levels for $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year in the US; local prices may differ and any eligible trial is shown in the app before purchase. Premium is billed by the App Store or Google Play and can be cancelled in your store subscription settings.

There are no ads in Class Readers. The app is a quiet reading space without links that pull children away from the story, purchases and settings sit behind a grown-up check, and progress reports are kept in the Grown-ups area.

There are over 150 original illustrated storybooks, with fiction series and recurring characters such as Coco the crow and Silly Sam, plus non-fiction about animals, nature and the world around us. New books are added to the library over time.

A good reading app for a 5-year-old pairs books at the right difficulty with support a paper book cannot give. Class Readers starts with very short picture books, highlights every word as it is narrated, lets children hear any new word on the page, invites them to record themselves and checks understanding with a short quiz, while 12 small levels make progress visible. Try a free story in the browser to see if it suits your child.