Spark & Anvil Privacy
LapTots reading-nook world — a grown-up and young children reading a real picture book together on a soft armchair in a warm cozy reading nook with plants, blank-spine bookshelves and a gentle lamp

📖 Ages 3–5 · A grown-up & child activity

LapTots

The anti-screen screen app. You read a real picture book in your child’s lap; LapTots quietly shows you one gentle question per page — the kind that turns reading-to into talking-with. Your child never touches or sees the phone.

🔒 No mic, no camera, no account, no data. Nothing about your child leaves this device.

🖨️ Print your bookmark 👶 Start a read-along

Start here

Print your bookmark The four reading friends and their questions on a bookmark that lives in the book. Fold it in half; no phone needed while you read. Read together Pick how many pages your book has — we’ll show you one gentle question per page as you read. The four questions Meet the four kinds of question that grow talkers and readers, with examples for any book.

The four reading friends

Four kinds of question — each one a little friend who shows up as you read.

  • Fill-in Finch — Completion: When you reach a line your child knows well, read almost to the end, then pause and let them say the last word.
  • Open-ended Owl — Open-ended: Ask your child to tell you about the picture in their own words.
  • Wh-Wren — Wh- question: Ask a what / where / who / why / how question about the page.
  • Distancing Deer — Distancing: Connect the page to your child’s own life.

Grounded in dialogic reading (Whitehurst 1988; Mol & Bus 2008) — talking about the pictures, not just reading the words, is what builds language. LapTots runs on your device only.

LapTots mascot

Meet the cast — the characters who teach this

Each one stands for an idea you’ll practice. Tap a character to read their illustrated story.

Explore all the stories →

What next? Pick a door

Chosen from what this app is about. What you open is remembered on this device only.