Classic Stories
Pick a storybook friend. Hear their story, then play a little game together. These friends are free to everyone now!
For grown-ups
Your child picks a friend from an old book or cartoon whose copyright has ended. The friend's card says since when they have been free to everyone, and why. Then the voice reads their story aloud, page by page, lighting up each word as it is said; your child taps the big arrow to turn the page. After the story comes one tiny game with that friend: count their things, find the pairs, tap what was in the story, or put the story in order. Then it stops on "All done" with a question for you to talk about together and a "Did you know?" fact.
Child lock: tap the lock at the top right. The ways out hide and the back button stays in the game. To unlock, hold the lock for 3 seconds and answer a sum.
Easy (ages 3 to 4): the short telling, 3 or 4 pages, and the smallest game. Normal (ages 5 to 6): a page or two more and a bigger game. Hard (ages 7 to 8): the whole story and the biggest game.
Why it's good for your child, what they learn, and how we designed it
Free, no ads, no sign-in. We count plays without names or anything that identifies your child, and your child is never recorded. Every picture is the arcade's own drawing.
Why it's good for your child
Classic Stories turns screen time into story time: one calm voice reads a short, simple retelling of a much-loved story while each word lights up, and then a tiny game asks about what happened. That is the active, engaged and meaningful kind of screen time research links to learning (Hirsh-Pasek 2015). The question on the "All done" screen gets you retelling the story together, and a grown-up talking along helps children learn most (AAP, Zero to Three).
What they learn
Listening to a story and answering questions about its key details (Common Core RL.K.1), retelling it in order with first, next and last (RL.K.2), and naming its characters, places and big moments (RL.K.3). New story words like prickly, curious and mammoth, heard and seen at the same time. The counting games practice counting to answer "how many?" up to 10 (K.CC.B.5).
How we designed it for ages 3 to 8
Pages turn only when your child taps the big arrow, the word being read gets a soft, still color, and each page glides in slowly, because fast cartoons lowered 4-year-olds' attention and self-control right after (Lillard & Peterson 2011). There is no background music, only one clear voice, since music and sound effects hurt word learning (Bus, Takacs & Kegel 2015). A round is one friend's story and one short game, then it stops on "All done" with nothing to collect and no "one more" prompt (Radesky 2022); the buttons are big enough for small fingers (Hiniker 2015), a different answer just gets a gentle line, and the Child lock keeps leaving and settings with you.
About the game
Classic Stories is a free read-aloud story game for ages 3 to 8. It celebrates storybook friends whose first books and cartoons are now in the public domain, which means their copyright has ended and they belong to everyone. Each story is retold in short, simple sentences from the original book or cartoon, read aloud by a calm voice with every word lit as it is said, and followed by one tiny game about the story.
The friends
- The Steamboat Mouse and the Music Mouse, from a 1928 cartoon (free since 2024)
- A honey-loving bear and a very small pig, from a 1926 book (free since 2022)
- A little rabbit in a blue jacket (1902), a girl who follows a white rabbit (1865), a girl from Kansas and her little black dog (1900), a wooden puppet (1883), a runaway gingerbread cookie (1875), a friendly dinosaur (1914), a jungle boy (1894), and the hero of the green forest (the old ballads)
Questions parents ask
Is Classic Stories free?
Yes. No sign-in, nothing to download or buy. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers.
What ages is it for?
Ages 3 to 8. Easy is a short story and a tiny game for ages 3 and 4, Normal adds pages for 5 and 6, and Hard tells the whole story for 7 and 8.
Are these characters really free to use?
Their original books and cartoons are in the public domain in the United States, so anyone may retell them. We use only what those first works show, drawn in our own style, and this game is not connected to any company that owns later versions.
How long is a round?
One friend: a short story of 3 to 6 pages, then one tiny game, then an All done screen with a question to talk about together. Nothing starts by itself.
This old film has no sound. A grown-up can read the words out loud.
All done!
Grown-up:
Did you know?