Reigniting a Love of Reading: How Animated Storybooks Can Support Busy Classrooms

Sponsored content written By Vik Mehta, founder of Motion Storybooks

Ask any primary school teacher what they’d love to have more of and you’ll likely hear the same answers: time, support, and more ways to engage every child.

Reading is the heartbeat of the early years curriculum, yet many classrooms are grappling with stretched resources, varying literacy levels, and growing numbers of children with English as an additional language or speech and language needs.

The question isn’t whether reading is important – it’s how we make it accessible, inclusive, and exciting for all learners, every day.

Having discussed this with teachers, I’ve heard first-hand how difficult this can be. Even the most enthusiastic educators can struggle to carve out meaningful story time when juggling interventions, behaviour or admin. While we all want to avoid screen time for the sake of it, what if technology could be part of the solution?

That’s exactly the thinking behind Motion Storybooks: a library of 400+ animated, read-aloud stories designed to support language development, spark imagination, and reduce teacher workload.

Rather than replacing books, our goal is to amplify them – especially for children who might not otherwise connect with traditional reading. Each story is fully narrated, animated and carefully crafted to support vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and a love of reading. Children can even narrate over their favourite animated story!

Here’s what we’ve seen in schools using the platform:

• Increased engagement from reluctant readers and neurodivergent pupils
• Improved language comprehension, particularly for EAL and SEN learners
• More time freed up for staff to work with individuals or small groups

One teacher described it as “like having a TA who tells stories brilliantly and never gets tired.”

Importantly, it’s not just about the tech – it’s about using the right tool at the right time. For example, teachers use Motion Storybooks for morning starters, golden time rewards or to reinforce themes being explored in literacy lessons. Many schools also use it to help non-specialist staff lead purposeful story sessions with minimal prep.

We’re not here to sell screens. We’re here to bring stories to life in ways that meet the needs of modern classrooms – where time is short, diversity is high, and every child deserves to feel the joy of reading.

If technology can help make that happen, then maybe it’s time we turned the page.

To learn more about how Motion Storybooks transforms the way young readers experience books, take a look at their EdTech Impact profile.