How to Use Little Story Bear
A simple parent guide to the reading check, personalized phonics books, Practice Den revision, and progress dashboards.
Make a Book or Revision
Step 1: Think of a story idea together
Sit with your child and choose either a story idea or a school topic. Story ideas become matched books; school topics become short lessons with checks and review.
Step 2: Speak or type your idea
Type the idea, or use voice input when available. Families can create storybooks in multiple languages, including right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Urdu.
Step 3: Build the book or lesson
The app creates an illustrated storybook matched to the reader, or a Practice Den lesson with a quiz, worksheet, and revision.
Step 4: Read the story together!
Your story opens like a real book. Flip through pages, use narration if you want it, and talk about the story together.
Two Learning Tracks
Reading Path
Your child's idea becomes an illustrated phonics book matched to their age and reading stage.
Try: “A penguin who learns to fly” or “Omar and his cat find a treasure map”
Practice Den revision
Turn a school topic into a short lesson, quiz, worksheet, and review. The app chooses the right teaching style for history, science, geography, vocabulary, or other concepts.
Try: “Teach me about Ancient Egypt” or “How do circuits work?”
How to switch: On the creator, choose Storybook for a personalized book or School topic for Practice Den-style revision. The app handles the right teaching style.
Reading Together
Once your story is ready, it opens like a real storybook. Here's what you can do:
👉 Flip pages
Use the left/right arrows or swipe. You'll hear a gentle page-turn sound — kids love it.
🔊 Listen to narration
Tap the play button to have Mama Bear or Papa Bear read the page aloud. Words highlight one by one.
▶️ Auto-play mode
Tap the auto-play button and the story reads itself, page by page. Perfect for bedtime.
🎵 Background sounds
Toggle ambient sounds on/off with the music icon. Soft sounds create a cozy reading atmosphere.
📖 Vocabulary word
Each story includes a vocabulary word with a kid-friendly definition at the bottom of the page.
🤔 Think About It
The last page has a discussion question. Talk about it together — great for building comprehension.
Audio Narration & Word Highlighting
Choose your narrator
Pick from two voices:
- 🐻Mama Bear — warm, gentle, nurturing
- 🐻Papa Bear — deep, comforting, playful
Word-by-word highlighting
As the narrator reads, each word lights up in real time. This helps your child:
- ✓ Connect spoken words to written words
- ✓ Track left-to-right reading direction
- ✓ Build sight-word recognition over time
- ✓ Follow along even before they can read independently
Tip: For non-English stories, the narration automatically switches to a native speaker in that language (Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, French, Spanish, Chinese).
The 49-lesson Reading Journey
Teach your child to read — no expertise needed
The 49-lesson Reading Journey is the guided phonics path for Level 1-3 readers. Each step becomes a storybook at your child's level, and your feedback helps decide when to repeat, review, or move on. Older readers can use storybooks and Practice Den for fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and school-topic revision.
Available inside the guided reading path during beta.
Open the 49-lesson Reading Journey
For early readers, you'll see the current phonics focus, a fun action to do together, and a parent guide telling you exactly what to say.
Create the story
Choose "Tell your own story" to narrate an idea together, or "Auto-generate" for a quick story. Either way, the phonics focus is built into the book.
Read together with highlighting
The narrator reads aloud while each word lights up. Point to the words and ask your child to spot the target sound. "Can you find all the S words?"
Tell us how it went, then come back tomorrow
After the book, one quick tap: got it, or found it tricky? Tricky days simply repeat the sound with a fresh story. After every 6 sounds there's a "blending party" combining sounds into real words. By lesson 49, your child can sound out and read simple sentences on their own.
Your Library & Downloads
My Library (Dashboard)
All your saved stories are stored in your personal library. Re-read them anytime, download a printable PDF, or print at home. Shipped hardcover ordering is coming soon. Find your books by clicking “My Library” in the top navigation.
PDF Downloads
Every story can be downloaded as a beautifully formatted PDF. Print it at home, email it to grandparents, or save it to read offline. Tap the download icon in the story viewer.
Print PDFs Now, Hardcovers Soon
Every story can already be downloaded as a printable PDF for home printing. We're preparing shipped hardcover books so families can turn favourite stories into keepsakes.
- ✓ Printable PDFs available now
- ✓ Gift-ready hardcover keepsakes coming soon
- ✓ Hardcover ordering from the Library when available
For now, use PDF downloads if you want to print at home.
Using Other Languages
Little Story Bear supports 20+ languages. Here's how it works:
- Speak or type in the story language. The app supports Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, French, Spanish, Chinese, and more.
- The story is written in that language. Including right-to-left text for Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi.
- Narration can support the selected language. Availability depends on the narration provider and language.
Bilingual families: Many parents use English for the 49-lesson Reading Journey and their home language for Story mode. This builds literacy in both languages at once.
Tips for Parents
🕒 Be consistent
10 minutes a day beats 1 hour on weekends. Make it part of your routine — after dinner, before bed, or during breakfast.
🙋 Let them lead
Let your child choose the story idea. Ownership helps them care about the book, especially when the reading is hard.
🔍 Point and ask
Point to words as they light up. Ask: “What sound does this word start with?” or “Can you find the word 'big' on this page?”
🎉 Celebrate everything
Every sound learned, every word read, every story finished. High fives, stickers, or just a “I'm so proud of you!” goes a long way.
💬 Talk about the story
Ask open questions: “What was your favourite part?”, “What do you think happens next?”, “How did the character feel?” This builds comprehension.
📱 It's not screen time
This works best as shared reading with a digital book. Sit together, read together, and talk together.
Child Safety
Every story passes through safety layers before your child sees it. We filter inappropriate content, block harmful prompts, keep adults in control of child accounts, and do not offer open child chat.
Ready to start?
Create your first story for free — no credit card needed.