5 Best Reading Apps for Kids: Free and Paid

For a child, reading is a fundamental skill that significantly helps them further their receptive skills as they develop. Reading instills empathy and cognitive abilities, thus stimulating a child’s cognitive development. Early exposure to reading picture books and playing with a tablet can help them build language skills.

Karen Wohlwend, a literacy professor, suggests that educational apps can develop six dimensions of participatory literacies in children: multiplayer, productive, multimodal, multilinear, pleasurable, and connected. Moreover, educational apps are rich with interactive visualization, which can also be instrumental in assisting children with reading disabilities.

Finding a suitable reading app for your child is time-consuming and couldn’t be more complicated due to the many available options on the app store. We have rigorously tested over ten reading apps on our devices, and after careful consideration, we have shortlisted five exceptional apps for you.

The below-highlighted apps are available in free and paid versions and offer various features, from intuitive wordplay to engaging storytelling. It’s our hope these apps will encourage kids to enjoy reading so that they will also attracted to reading books.

1. Epic!

Price: $7.99/month,  30-day trial

Why We Recommend: Epic! is an interactive reading platform for kids with a comprehensive library of over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and videos. Epic is carefully curated for children under 12 with an ever-expanding book library and graphic novels.

It features a personalized recommendation system that suggests books/novels based on a child’s reading interests and engages reluctant readers to total bookworms.

Parents can also track their child’s progress and reading activity. With tools like vocabulary builder and dictionary Lookup, your child could boost their reading and critical thinking skills while playing word games and quizzes.

Ages/Grades: 2-12 years old

Features: Personalized suggestions, tracking tools, offline reading mode, and the option to read in Spanish and French.

Pros: Expansive range of books, engaging interface, build vocabulary and reading skills .

Cons: Monthly subscription fee, limited access to some books due to licensing restrictions.

2  Reading Eggs

Price: $9.99/month, Free trial

Reading Eggs makes reading exciting and engaging for kids. Your child can build the necessary sensory skills with highly engaging reading programs in the app. It features reading lessons like building comprehension, spelling, and grammar skills which help them become confident lifelong readers.

Why We Recommend: This is one of our favorite educational apps that teach children to learn and read through gamifying interactive activities. It features an extensive library of fictional and non-fictional books tailored to a child’s reading level. We also loved that parents could access regular reports to track their child’s progress. Children between the ages of 5⁠–⁠10 can improve their reading skills with systematic and synthetic phonics exercises in the app.

Ages/Grades: 2-13 years old

Features: Personalized reading lessons, interactive activities and lessons, progress reports, and printable worksheets.

Pros: Engaging interface, educational activities, and regular progress reports.

Cons: Monthly subscription fee.

3 Vooks

Price: $4.99/month or or $49.99/year, Free trial

Why We Recommend: Beautiful animation, professional narration, and various library features make this app a must-have reading app for kids. Kids love interactive and immersive play; this video-based app can benefit any parent struggling to teach their little one new perspectives and build knowledge without distractions.

It features a curated selection of high-quality children’s books with titles related to STEM and Emotional Learning. The diverse collection of books with educational Comprehension and learning makes Vooks an excellent option for children learning to read.

Ages/Grades: 2-8 years old

Features: Animated books, read-aloud narration, interactive quizzes, Offline Reading.

Pros: Engaging animations, STEM Titles, and many high-quality, family-friendly books.

Cons: Limited selection of books compared to other reading apps.

4. ABCmouse

Price: $12.95/month, Free trial

Why We Recommend: ABCmouse features an exhaustive list of learning activities for children ages 2 to 8. The curriculum includes 850 Lessons across 10 Levels and comprises reading, math, science, and art programs.

Every curated curriculum contains fun and interactive comprehensions and activities that teach a specific educational concept. This app provides a step-by-step path to learning sentence structure and punctuation for preschool to second-grade students.

We have also checked the wide range of fiction and non-fiction books available under the reading section tailored to a child’s reading level. The puzzle section teaches the children problem-solving and critical-thinking skills and lets kids solve fiction stories puzzles.

Ages/Grades: 2-8 years old

Features: Comprehensive curriculum, personalized learning, progress reports, and the option to learn to read in Spanish.

Pros: Comprehensive curriculum, engaging interface, and regular progress reports.

Cons: Monthly subscription, Restricted access to books.

5.  Hooked on Phonics

Price: First Month for just $1, then $15.99/Month

Why We Recommend: Phonetics is the basis of reading which helps kids produce and perceive sounds and associate a particular sound with its corresponding letter. For growing kids who are learning new words and distinctive vocabulary every day, Hooked on Phonics is essential.

With read-through interactive games and activities, Hooked on Phonics familiarizes children with vowel and consonant sounds. The app includes practice packs and workbooks that cover lessons and start with simple sound introductions.

Every time your child completes a comprehension, a new fun activity is added with the newly learned words. The lessons and practice comprehension provides a step-by-step pathway to solidify the learning that molds a child into a successful reader. Hooked on Phonics features a comprehensive curriculum including phonics, sight words, and reading comprehension.

Ages/Grades: 3-8 years old

Features: Videos with catchy songs, games, activities, comprehensive curriculum, hands-on writing practice, and progress reports.

Pros: Engaging puzzles, physical storybooks, and funny characters.

Cons: Monthly subscription fee.

Conclusion

In conclusion, reading apps are helpful for occupied parents and offer a more efficient way to engage kids. The interactive reading experience with a comprehensive curriculum accomplishes the parenting goal of engaging their children in a meaningful activity.

Within a brief portion of time and a little effort from parents, these reading apps can help children develop and stimulate their learning skills. Reading apps are an engaging tool to improve literacy, from phonics and Vocabulary to Sight word recognition and critical thinking.

The five apps highlighted in this article are Epic, Reading Eggs, ABCmouse, Vooks, and Hooked on Phonics. All these apps offer a range of features and prices. You can choose any of these apps according to your needs and budget.

Author Name and Bio:
Parvinder Singh is a seasoned IT developer and network engineer with over 5 years of experience. He is also a skilled tech columnist, offering insights on the latest trends and developments in the tech industry.