What is a Smart Book?

A Smart Book is a normal ebook with two intelligent layers added on top — all running entirely inside your browser, with no downloads and no extra app to install. The first layer is Read-Along mode: press play and a voice narrates the chapter while every single word lights up as it is spoken, like karaoke for your book. Tap any word to jump narration straight to that point. The second layer is Discuss mode: two hosts — Maya and Theo — have a short, friendly conversation that summarises and unpacks the chapter in plain language, the way a good friend explains something over coffee. You can choose a Brief cut of under a minute, or go deeper with the full Deep Dive.

Smart Books work because modern browsers include a built-in speech engine called the Web Speech API. That engine lives on your device — it is the same voice that reads your notifications and powers accessibility tools. Smart Books simply ask it to speak the chapter text and then listen to exactly where in the text the voice has reached. The result is word-level synchronisation that works offline, instantly, on any device, for free. No audio files need to be downloaded because the voice is already there.

The Smart Book for Kids variant takes everything above and makes it gentler. Text grows to a comfortable size for young readers. A procedural illustration appears on every page — drawn entirely in code, no image files. Tapping any individual word speaks just that word clearly and slowly, helping children build vocabulary and pronunciation alongside comprehension. The "Read to me" button narrates page by page automatically, and parents can choose whether pages turn on their own so a child can listen independently.

Read-Along is excellent for people who find it difficult to hold focus across long stretches of text, including dyslexic readers and ESL learners, for whom hearing and seeing a word simultaneously is a powerful comprehension aid. It is also ideal for commute listening — you can follow along on-screen or simply close your eyes and let the voice carry you through. Discuss mode is especially useful for non-fiction: instead of underlining and re-reading, you simply listen to a short conversation that extracts the key ideas.

Your reading is entirely private. Progress, chosen voice, speed, and position are saved to your own device's local storage. Nothing about what you read or how far you have got is ever sent to a server. You can close the tab and return days later to exactly where you left off.

Frequently Asked Questions