Build Me A Story

An illustrated story about whatever they like

Your child says what should happen. A whole story magically appears - written for their age, illustrated page by page, and saved to read again together. The only limit is your child’s imagination. What is typed in is never sent to us. There’s no ads, no sign-up, no tracking, and no data selling.

A finished story open on a tablet: the words on one page and an illustration facing them.

How it works

Two boxes and three choices

There are two things to type and three things to choose. Everything else is done for you.

  1. Say who it’s about

    Describe the main character - this may be you; family; friends; a banana; anything you like. Then say what they get up to: “a dragon who is afraid of the dark,” “Grandpa’s shed,” anything at all.

  2. Pick the shape of it

    The reading age, how many pages, and the illustration style. The choices are remembered for next time.

  3. Read it together

    The words arrive first, so you can start reading while the robot finishes drawing the pictures. It’s saved to your library when it’s done.

The three choices

Written for the child in front of you

Age changes the reading level and the sentence length, not just the word count - a story for a two-year-old is a different story from one for a ten-year-old, not just a shorter one.

Who it’s for

  • Toddlers (2–3) One or two very short sentences per page.
  • Preschool (3–5) Two or three short, simple sentences.
  • Early readers (4–7) Three or four sentences, and longer words.
  • Confident readers (6–9) A real plot, with a beginning, middle and end.
  • Independent readers (8–11) Longer pages, engagement, something to get your teeth into.

How long

  • Short A few pages, 4–6 pages
  • Medium Room for a plot, 6–8 pages
  • Long A proper adventure, 9–12 pages

How it looks

Choose from one of four art styles. Every page of a story is drawn in the same one, so it hangs together like a real book.

A look inside

It behaves like a book

Pages turn on the fold, the way a real page does. Your library looks like a book too.

The story form: a main character field, a box for what the story should be about, and pickers for age, art style and length.
Two things to type, three to choose.
A story being made: the words are on both pages, one picture is finished and the other is still being drawn.
The words land first, so you can start before it’s finished.
The library: saved stories laid out across the two pages of an open book.
Every story you’ve made, kept on the device.
A finished story open at a two-page spread, with the words on one page and an illustration facing them.
Text bigger or smaller, without leaving the page.

On a tablet

Built for the thing you actually read on

Held between two people on a sofa, a tablet is the right shape to read an illustrated story on. The app was designed for this, not squeezed down from another format.

Two pages at once

Landscape gives you a proper spread: the words on one side, the picture facing them.

Text that resizes

Pinch, or use the two buttons in the bar. It stacks on top of your device’s own text-size setting rather than overriding it, and the buttons work for anyone who can’t pinch.

Reads back offline

Making a story needs an internet connection. Reading one you already have does not - they are stored on the device, pictures and all.

English and German

Two languages, kept separate

The app’s own language and the language your stories are written in are two different settings. An English app can write German stories for a grandparent, and the other way round - so the person reading and the person being read to don’t have to want the same thing.

The app in German, open at a German story: the interface and the words on the page are both in German.
A German story, in the German app.

Where the stories come from

Written and drawn by a model

Every story and every picture is generated from what you type, by an AI model. Three things follow from that, and all three are worth knowing before you read one together.

Every one is different

The same idea will never give the same story twice, so one your child likes is worth keeping rather than expecting to get it back.

It can get things wrong

Anything in a story that sounds like a fact is invention rather than information, and is worth reading as one.

We filter, but we can’t guarantee

The model is told to write for the age you chose, and will apply its own safety filters on top. Filtering can never be perfect, so this is an app for an adult to read alongside a child.

Read the terms of use - they cover the same three points in full.

Made for children

What your child says stays on your device

The two things this app asks for are the two worst things it could send anywhere: often a real child’s first name, and whatever they dictated. So it doesn’t send them.

  • Names and story ideas never leave, except to make the story They go to the model that writes and illustrates it - and nowhere else. They are never part of any analytics, any log, or any crash report.
  • No advertising, no profiling, no third-party trackers No advertising identifier, no device identifier. There is one random installation number, made up on your device the first time you open it.
  • You can switch data collection off One switch covers both the usage numbers and the crash reports, and turning it off deletes what was waiting to be sent.
  • Nothing is sold, and nothing goes to advertisers or data brokers There are no ads in the app, and no advertising software in it either - so there is nothing there that could be fed.
  • This website sets no cookies No cookie banner, because there are no cookies and nothing loaded from anyone else.

Read the privacy policy - it is specific about what is collected and what is not.

Illustrated stories made from your child's own ideas

Get it on your tablet.