Teach Your Monster to Read
Learn Reading with Fun Phonics
Ratings
Age
4+
Category
Education
Languages
English
Wed Sep 03 2025
Bug fixes, small updates for the latest OS, and now new users will sign up before jumping in - this helps us protect your progress, offer cross-device play, and give better support if you need it. A few other small improvements too. Love the game? Please leave a review — we read them all!
Teach Your Monster to Read is a groundbreaking educational game that has helped millions of children learn to read. Developed in collaboration with leading academics, the game guides a custom-built monster through a series of islands, each focusing on specific phonemes, sight words, and reading skills. It covers the first two years of the reading journey, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying complete books. The game is aligned with school curricula and provides a safe, fun, and highly effective environment for young learners.
Dinsun Expert Review
Our Expert Score
Teach Your Monster to Read is quite simply the gold standard for educational games. It managed to do the impossible: make phonics practice genuinely fun for children. By putting the child in the role of a teacher to a cute, customizable monster, it removes the pressure of 'learning' and replaces it with a sense of care and adventure. The production value is top-notch, with professional voice acting and charming animation that rivals a cartoon series.
From a pedagogical standpoint, it is incredibly sound, covering everything from basic letter recognition to complex sentence structures. It follows the phases of phonics used in schools, making it an ideal supplement for classroom learning. The game is never frustrating; it provides just the right amount of challenge and positive reinforcement. If you have a child between the ages of 3 and 6, this is the best investment you can make in their literacy journey. It is a rare educational app that children will actually ask to play.
Features
Award-winning pedagogy
Covers 2 years of reading
Fun mini-games
Syncs with desktop version
Tips & Walkthrough
Start by customizing your monster's appearance. As they learn new sounds, they'll unlock new accessories and powers.
Gameplays
Navigate through different islands where each challenge focuses on a specific set of phonemes and sight words.
Screenshot
Q&A
The app is often on sale or free; check the current App Store price for details.
Ratings & Reviews
Really helpful for a struggling reader
Wed Nov 04 2020 True ColorsI’m not generally a fan of app based learning, but have been COVID schooling a kinder student who struggles majorly with the rudiments of reading, like letter sounds and blending. This app has turned reading from a frustrating subject to his favorite subject. He only plays for 10-15 minutes a day, as a supplement to our usual phonics lessons, but he has improved in every area by leaps and bounds, easily reading through simple books that would’ve been a slow, frustrating process to get through before. He is very motivated by earning prizes for his monster, and loves to show me all the monster accessories, letter sounds, and now “trickies” (sight words) he’s collected. The game has just enough intuitive feedback that he can figure it out almost entirely on his own, but not so much that it encourages guessing. My only complaint is that it does not automatically keep the player from progressing to harder material without mastery. As long as the child has done all the activities in level 1, even if he is still struggling and making a lot of errors in some places, the game will still move on to level 2. Overall, a great way to get struggling readers motivated, and build confidence.
Effective and fun!
Thu Jul 06 2017 Emp ZogWhen my 4 year old daughter began using this game she loved it and didn't want to put it down. When she started she knew all the letters of her alphabet and many sounds. Within the first two months she was reading simple words (CVC). By the fourth month she was reading simple sentences. By 9 months she had completed finished all three levels of the game and could read proficiently at a 2nd grade level (about 550 lexile). I combined this game with Usborne Books & More's Very First Reading Set, which progresses using the same sounds/words as each part of the game. The only downsides of this game are: as an American some of our pronunciations are different than how they are taught in the game (just a few words, but I enjoy hearing the accents of the narrator and characters), and single sounds/parts of the game cannot be focused on for further practice; the entire level has to be repeated. With my daughter I made up flash cards to practice her sounds and tricky words, but being able to select a letter/letter combination/word to repeat would be a nice feature. Overall, though, I give this game 5 stars for being FUN and very EFFECTIVE. I recommend this to everybody!
Child wanted to play extra time
Wed Jan 13 2021 Grey and NovaJust downloaded yesterday but my first grader loved it right away. One glitch for my ESL girl was figuring out how to get the “magnet machine tool”...do not know what it should be called ...to lift the blank sound blocks as visible clues are what she looks for first. Because she has had trouble hearing and recognizing initial letter sounds, the lack of a visual clue made her listen more closely which was good. After frustration about figuring out what action was needed, she happily went on to make progress. She was so excited, she wanted to use the app again today on her lunch break. Today her almost 5 year and sister whined for me to put it in my phone so she could do it also. If early excitement and learning continues, I will be happy. A couple of other apos that I have tried the younger sister on before have yielded a “no, I don’t want that!” response. So it clearly got both over the app avoidance test!
Homeschool Mom Thrilled with App, but...
Thu Mar 14 2019 ChaneyAlexisWe have been using this app for a couple of weeks and we love it. My daughter struggles with reading, and her progress with TYMtR has been incredible. She enjoys all the games and is motivated to play. My only complaint is that the “Stat” feature is not working for her profile. On my account I made two student profiles one called “Mom” so I could test the app out to see if it was worth letting my daughter try it, and one in my daughter’s name. I have no problems accessing the Stats for the “Mom” profile, but for about a week, I have not been able to access my daughter’s stats. I would like to be able to use those stats to help her work on problem areas and to determine if she is progressing too fast through the levels. I emailed tech support, but was told that it may be a server issue with the influx of users and to try at different times of day, but no matter the day or time, the Stats are not available for my daughter’s profile but work fine on the other profile. Fixing this issue would make this app a solid 5 star review.
Love this app!!
Fri Jul 11 2025 Poppy5216My 7 year old daughter struggles with reading and writing, and I had been trying to find learning apps that work for her. When I came across this one, my mind was blown. I love the mix of entertainment and academic this app has, and she has been improving by day playing this!! The chest prize at the end of each mini game excites and motivates her to continue so she can collect enough stars for accessories. Overall, my only issue would be that it’s a little repetitive. I don’t wanna say this too soon, but she’s finished multiple planets and I’ve noticed her starting to get bored after playing. I would hate for this game to become more like a task and not a reward in her perspective. If possible, something like a new mini game or new things to customize the monster with would be really cool!
Too fast for preschoolers
Mon Jun 23 2025 kinder teacher ideasIt’s really fun and my preschooler likes it BUT a lot of the games are set on a speed which is too fast for him to be able to play - the designer needs to consider slowing the games down a bit so preschoolers can play. A lot of them are new to iPads and it can get frustrating if the game runs so fast they can never win or even navigate themselves around. Also the app covers letter sounds too fast. My preschooler couldn’t remember the forest four letter sounds the next day and would have benefited from more review. There is a review section but he couldn’t play most of the games as they’re too fast for him. There is an option to review more than one letter (each lesson covers four at the start) but it asks kids to blend sounds which is quite an advanced skill for a kid who learned their first letter sounds just the day before. Overall need to be slowed down for the preschoolers (phonics wise AND the actual game speed)
Great for school and home!
Wed Oct 28 2020 Lilliepad25I am special education teacher and mother. My kids at home school love this app. It’s fun, academic and truly free. The game is centered on each child’s needs and does not progress until they have mastered a skill. Even when they’re slow to master a skill game doesn’t get boring or less challenging he continues to push the child in different ways the kids get prizes to decorate their monster for finishing challenges in the game. This game is not just for the lower level kids but for upper level elementary too. My daughter is in third fourth and fifth enjoy it for the reading comprehension and center structure. It has a great little Cavaleri and reinforces what your teachers are teaching. It’s colorful bright and I have yet to have any bug issues with his app. I use it on the computer on my whiteboard and also on my Apple products
My kids are in love!
Thu Mar 07 2019 AshlicitaThis app is “almost” the perfect phonetics game! Loves: -My kids want to play it ALL the time. -It had 3 levels so it adapts to each kids’ ability. -It is fun, interactive, and very educational. -My autistic (almost)4yr old is an early reader but late speaker, his pronunciation is getting better after just a few days. -My 6yr old is now recognizing more blended letters when reading his homework. He was already one of the top readers in his class, he is now blowing me away by home much he is picking up in just a few days of playing. Cons: -The British accent is sometimes hard for my American kids to understand what they are being asked to do. -The volume is not quite right. The main narrator and the music/sound effects are really loud if you want to actually hear the “word speakers”. Example: I the narrator says “to save the bear find the word”, and then someone else says “turn”. The person saying “turn” is so quiet that we have the tablet volume almost all the way up. Then it’s way too loud when the narrator speaks again. -There are a few instances, in different games, where I wish you could touch letters and they would make the phonetic sound again for kids who have a hard time remembering their task. Overall we are absolutely in love with this game and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a good phonetics game!
