About Us     

 

I am Jon, founder of Read Me A Story. Like you, I love good stories. And I love reading them aloud to my little granddaughter. Sadly she and I live far apart and only visit one another on rare occasion. So  I used to  find some of the kids' old storybooks, snap pictures of their illustrations, and record my voice to create digital stories that I could send to her. She just loved them, especially when I personalized stories just for her, sometimes substituting her name or that of people she knew for those on the printed page. In return, she would pop a heart over the video story I had sent, and this would encourage me to create even more stories for her.

 

So I asked, why not enable other grand folk (or parents not there in home) do the same thing - read stories to their little ones as time allowed. I recall those evenings when my kids were young and our nightly ritual was to snuggle up and read together. Sometimes these moments were magical, but at other times bittersweet -maybe we were interrupted in the middle of a really good story, or the story turned out to be tedious or pointless, or one of us conked out from fatigue after a long day. On still other evenings, we ran out of reading time, or were preoccupied with other stuff, or I simply could not make it home by bedtime. 

 

So I thought, there must be a way technology can help. I mean, kids nowadays spend hours looking at screens. Maybe if given the means, grownups could use screens to read great stories to their little ones? How many of us face immutable time or distance constraints, work long hours, or serve overseas or incarcerated?  There must be a tech savvy way where the gift of reading aloud can be shared with our kids.

 

And so Read Me A Story app was born.

 

Your own familiar voice is a simple gift anyone can give a child. Screens may not be as warm and fuzzy as reading aloud together, with the touch and scent of a real book, but using this app is still very much worthwhile. Our stories offer glimpses into beauty and mystery and wonder, without real world distractions or interruptions, to be savored and enjoyed again and again. Although sharing an app may be asynchronous in time, it can nonetheless create a special bond between you and your little ones. As they watch your video story, made just for them, they'll drop off to sleep with the same glow as if you yourself were beside them.

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