Read classic books aloud with your kids

Short answer: open a children's classic in Book2Life, press play, and it reads the chapter aloud with each word highlighted while pictures of the scenes appear in the text. The classics are free, narration is free, and it works on a phone, a tablet or a laptop.

Chapter books are where reading aloud gets hard. A picture book has an image on every page; Peter Pan has twenty pages of text before anything happens that a five-year-old can see. Kids drift. Book2Life puts the pictures back, one for each key moment of the chapter, placed right beside the passage it comes from.

How it works

1. Pick a book. The free shelf includes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Grimms' Fairy Tales.
2. Press play, or read it yourself. The voice reads with the words lighting up as they're spoken, which helps early readers follow along with a finger. Turn it off and read in your own voice whenever you like.
3. Stop at the pictures. Key scenes in each chapter are illustrated, along with the places they happen and a portrait of each character drawn from the author's own description. One scene and one setting per chapter are free; Pro illustrates all of them. Tap a highlighted name to see who it is.
4. Catch up after a missed night. A short recap of the story so far gets everyone back on the same page.

Which classics to start with

Age, read together	Book	Why it works aloud
5 and up	Grimms' Fairy Tales	Short tales, one per sitting
5 and up	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland	Twelve short chapters, a new creature in each
6 and up	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	A clear quest and a friend added every few chapters
6 and up	Peter Pan	Flying, pirates and a crocodile; some long descriptive passages
8 and up	The Secret Garden	Quiet, and lovely for bedtime
8 and up	Treasure Island	Real peril and some violence; better for older listeners
9 and up	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Funny, but has dated language worth talking about

Ages are a starting point. You know what your child is ready for; the chapter-by-chapter summaries let you look ahead before you read a chapter together.

Tips for reading chapter books aloud

• One chapter a night. Most of these chapters take 10 to 20 minutes aloud.
• Pause at each picture and ask what they think happens next.
• Slow the voice down in the iPhone, iPad or Android app when they're following the words, and back up for listening with eyes closed.
• Use the cast list. When a new character turns up, tap the name and look at the portrait together.

Read Peter Pan free in your browser, or get the app for iPhone, iPad, Mac or Android.