Meet the Dream Machine: Our Storytelling Tool for Families

The Dream Machine is our storytelling tool: a free library of animated storybooks that read themselves aloud. It lives on our sister site, Sparkle Tree Press, and works on any phone, tablet or computer with nothing to download.

What it does

Every story opens like a real book. Press Play and the Dream Machine reads each page aloud using your device's built-in voice, lighting up every word as it's spoken. The pictures move, Poppy and friends come to life, and the pages turn by themselves when each one is finished.

Prefer to read together? Choose Read it myself and turn the pages yourself while the scenes still play. There's a warm bedtime light, a bigger-words button for new readers, and full screen for snuggling up.

What's in the library

Five storybooks are free to read from start to finish: Enchanted Adventures of Poppy, Glowberry and the Moon Seed, The Sparkle Tree and the First Star, The Rainbow Bridge and The Brave Little Pixel. You can also open a sneak peek of each Poppy the Dragon book.

Where AI comes in

We use AI tools to help create our illustrations and animations, and we choose, edit and check every one before it goes into a story. The read-aloud voice is your own device's text-to-speech voice, so nothing you read is sent anywhere. The Dream Machine doesn't ask children to type anything, and it doesn't generate new stories or pictures on its own.

Calm and safe by design

No adverts, no accounts and nothing to download. The animations stay still if your device is set to reduce motion, and the read-aloud voice follows the words so early readers can join in.

Try it tonight: open the Dream Machine. For more ideas, see the free Bedtime Reading Guide.