Academics
ReadPals
Sound out first words to a whole page with Blip the frog — blending, digraphs, magic-e, and decodable readers for grade 1–2 (ages 6–8).
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 15 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning.
Mentored by Blip
#3f9d6b Characters who teach
Meet the cast
Blip the tree frog hosts the reading pond. Shelby the snail presses two letters into one sound, Mavis the owl makes a vowel say its name, and Lark the songbird reads a line smoothly, like telling a friend. There are no timers and no wrong answers to fear: a missed sound is a friendly retry, and grown-ups are invited to sound words out together.
Blip
Blending (sound-to-sound → word) — a small bright leaf-green tree frog kid who hops from sound to sound, then slides the sounds together into a word; glowing sound-dots trail behind each hop
Read chapter →
Shelby
Digraphs (two letters → one sound) — a gentle spiral-shell snail kid who presses two letter-tiles together so they make ONE new sound (sh / ch / th); the joined tiles glow as one
Read chapter →
Mavis
Long vowels (silent-e / vowel teams) — a wise round-eyed owl kid who adds a silent-e or teams two vowels so the vowel says its own name (cap → cape); a little magic-e sparkle on her wingtip
Read chapter →
Lark
Oral reading fluency — a cheerful songbird lark kid who reads a whole line smoothly and with a little song (expression); musical notes float up from the page as she reads
Read chapter →
Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Sound out first words to a whole page with Blip the frog — blending, digraphs, magic-e, and decodable readers for grade 1–2 (ages 6–8).
Mentored by Blip — no data leaves the device.
How ReadPals handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
ReadPals runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
ReadPals is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch