The best story app for reluctant readers (2026)
Full disclosure: we make one of these apps, and reluctant readers are a big reason we built it. That makes us biased, so here's the whole picture, including apps that aren't ours, and a question worth asking before you download anything.
| App | Best for | Price | The hook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branchlings (ours) | kids who'd rather tell stories than read them | From $9.99/month; sample stories free to read, no free trial | They're the hero, and they decide what happens next |
| Epic | finding the one book about the thing they love | $13.99/month or $84.99/year; 7-day free trial | 40,000+ books, so there's one about whatever they're into |
| StoryJumper | kids who'd rather write than read | Free to make books online; printed copies from $14.99 | They make the book themselves, and can hold it in print |
| Moonbeam | the cheapest stories with choices | $2.99/month or $19.99/year | An interactive mode where they choose the path |
First, is it boring, or is it hard?
Some children avoid reading because they haven't found anything they want to read. Others avoid it because reading is genuinely hard work for them. An app can help with the first. For the second, talk to their teacher, and see our guide to apps for kids with dyslexia.
Listening counts too. Hearing stories read aloud, with the words in front of them, builds vocabulary and the habit of finishing a story, and every app below can read to your child or let them hear their own voice.
1. Branchlings ours
- Best for
- kids who'd rather tell stories than read them
- Price
- From $9.99/month; sample stories free to read, no free trial
- The hook
- They're the hero, and they decide what happens next
This is ours. Your child is the hero of every story, a character they designed, with the friends, pets and imaginary creatures they choose. They can start from their own idea ("a robot who's scared of the dark builds a rocket"), and at every fork they decide what happens next, or tap My idea! and add something nobody planned.
It's written for their age, from read-along stories for six-year-olds to longer adventures for 12-year-olds, with four choices at each fork from age 11. Words can light up as the story is read aloud, so they can listen and follow along, and there's a dyslexia-friendly font. A next chapter brings the same hero back, and the story remembers what happened.
What it won't do: teach reading or track their level. It's from $9.99 a month, with no free trial, on iPhone and iPad.
2. Epic
- Best for
- finding the one book about the thing they love
- Price
- $13.99/month or $84.99/year; 7-day free trial
- The hook
- 40,000+ books, so there's one about whatever they're into
Sharks, soccer, slime, space: with 40,000+ published books, plus audiobooks and videos, Epic probably has the one book that clicks. Many books have quizzes, there's a reading log, and Read-to-Me books are narrated by professionals with the words highlighted.
The catch: $13.99 a month or $84.99 a year, and a big library only helps if someone helps them find the right book.
3. StoryJumper
- Best for
- kids who'd rather write than read
- Price
- Free to make books online; printed copies from $14.99
- The hook
- They make the book themselves, and can hold it in print
Some reluctant readers are eager authors. In StoryJumper, a free web tool, your child writes their own book, builds the pages from its scenes and props or their own drawings, and records themselves reading it. A printed paperback is $14.99.
The catch: it runs in a browser on a computer or iPad, and there's no drawing tool inside it.
4. Moonbeam
- Best for
- the cheapest stories with choices
- Price
- $2.99/month or $19.99/year
- The hook
- An interactive mode where they choose the path
Moonbeam writes AI bedtime stories at a reading level you set, and its interactive mode lets your child decide where the story goes, for as long as they like. Six narrators can read it aloud. It's $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year.
The catch: one picture per story, iPhone only and English only, and it hasn't been updated since May 2025.
Our pick
If your child loves making things up, Branchlings: the story can't go on until they decide. If they just haven't found their book yet, Epic. If they'd rather be the author, StoryJumper.
Whatever you pick, let it count as reading, even when they're listening. The goal is a child who wants the next page.
What we'd do today
- Ask what they'd read about if they could pick anything. Start there.
- Read our free sample story together, and let them make every choice.
- Let them read just the choices out loud. It's a small win, and it's theirs.
- If reading seems hard, not just boring, ask their teacher about it this week.
Questions
- How do I get my child interested in reading?
- Give them a reason to turn the page: a topic they love, a story about them, or a choice that's theirs to make. Read with them, let listening count, and keep it short and often.
- Are pick-your-path stories good for reluctant readers?
- They can be: a choice at the end of a page is a reason to read it. Branchlings is built around choices at every fork. Moonbeam has an interactive mode, and Giant's interactive stories have choices too, though Giant is aimed at younger children.
- Does Branchlings help with reading?
- It's reading practice, not a reading program. Stories are written at your child's level, words light up when the storyteller voice reads the story, and you can tap any word to hear it. It doesn't teach phonics.
- Is Branchlings free?
- Branchlings is free to download, with in-app purchases. You can read the sample stories before you choose a plan. Painting your character and new stories come with a plan, from $9.99 a month. See pricing.
Try Branchlings
Your child dreams up the story and picks what happens at every fork, and Branchlings writes and paints it. Free to download, with in-app purchases. You can read the sample stories before you choose a plan. Painting your character and new stories come with a plan. Plans start at $9.99 a month, and there's no free trial. For iPhone and iPad in the US.
We checked prices and features for every app here in October 2026. Apps change fast, so double-check on each app's own site before you buy. Names of other apps are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to identify them; we're not connected with any of them.