Geekdad Review—Vooks: Bringing Storybooks to Life

What Is Vooks?

Vooks is a book-streaming platform that animates storybooks. It doesn’t have that many titles—but it is expanding continuously—and that is because they add movement, sound, and narration to each and every one of the books available.

Vooks Features

Mainly, Vooks is interested in supporting both parents and educators, and this is what it has to offer:

The Vooks App: Kid-safe and ad-free, the streaming library has many read-aloud animated storybooks ranged by age. Toddlers can enjoy it, and so can middle-graders. For me, the best books have to do with information; Shells and Proud to be Latino: Food (in bilingual form!) were both great reads. Some advantages are guided storytelling, which combines both words and slow-paced animation on the screen, the positive screen time you can provide your children with, and the availability of both streaming and offline viewing.

It’s free to download on the App Store and Google Play, with a subscription fee for unlimited access.

Vooks Lesson Plans: The free database offers resources and guides for both parents and educators. They are designed to help children learn through questions and activities. They are free to download on their website.

Vooks Pause & Ponder: These one-sheet activity guides are designed to promote conversation around specific moments in each book. They are also available on the website.

Advantages & Deals

The subscription fee is $4.99 monthly or $49.99 annually. You can sign up for a free one-month trial. I think that this company, founded in 2018, has soared especially during the pandemic because so many parents were grateful for its much-needed content.

For educators, there is an exclusive free year trial available upon request.

I first heard of Vooks because many art teachers out there were using it before schools closed. It provides a good and relaxing way to pass snack time, and with titles such as 100 First Words for Little Artists, there’s plenty of inspiration to use this app in an educational setting. Also, a one-year free trial, people!

Conclusions

I think that each parent or educator out there should check out the free trial, play with it a bit, and see if it meets their specific needs. Maybe some older kids who already do a lot of reading will not find it as interesting. However, many parents out there are grateful for the sheer diversity of books, sounds, and effects. This animated storytelling can provide, you know, that little bit of quiet time every parent needs, COVID or no COVID.