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Personalized Reading Recommendations for Kids from Zoobean

Discovering new books with personalized recommendations from Zoobean

My kids love reading and books, so I was thrilled when Zoobean offered me the opportunity to write a sponsored post about their personalized book subscription service for kids! Zoobean was started by a husband and wife team who met when they were both teaching 7th grade! They are parents and educators who are working to build literacy by curating apps, books, and resources for individual kids. Zoobean’s team of curators (all parents and educators/librarians) work together with their site technology to find books and resources that are customized for each child’s reading level and interests.

Zoobean was kind enough to send us two of their hard cover subscription service to try out. You fill out a profile for each subscription. Since I have four kids, I decided to create one profile that combined Emma and Johnny’s interests (which are generally fairly similar), and a second profile that combined Lily and Anna’s interests (mainly Lily’s interests, since Anna’s interests currently consist of dogs and cats. Originally both dogs and cats said woof, but ever since my sister started sending me videos of her new kittens all dogs and cats say mrrrow.)

I was impressed when we received a book for Emma and Johnny that was new to me and that they really enjoyed – and then again when the same thing happened with Lily and Anna’s subscription. The profile questions are extensive enough that you can make it work for multiple children if you need to, or have it perfectly tailored to a single child. Each book comes with an app suggestion (you may have to pay extra for the app) as well as several activities – see, for example, these activities designed to go along with Seasons and Weather by Tribal Nova and these designed to accompany Flora and Flamingo by Molly Idle.

Zoobean offers a virtual SmartList with weekly app and book recommendations that are personalized to children’s interests and reading levels. Currently, Zoobean is offering a 60-day free trial of this service!

Zoobean - a personalized book subscription service for kids

Do you think your kids would enjoy Zoobean? You can try out Zoobean Smartlist for free, or if you want to try out Zoobean Home, you can use code SmartyTwoShoes to get $5 off any Zoobean Home purchase. My kids are really enjoying their books, and the accompanying apps are lovely. I think that this subscription service would also make a wonderful gift for a new teacher – they could build their library AND get some new activity ideas at the same time!

Zoobean sponsored this post. I only write sponsored posts for companies I genuinely admire, and all opinions are my own.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

10 thoughts on “Personalized Reading Recommendations for Kids from Zoobean”

  1. This sounds like a cool service! J is just learning how to read and continues to impress me every day with what he’s learning and reading. Books are the things I can’t say no to for him.

  2. That sounds very interesting. Too bad we are not in a position to join subscruption due to living far away…

  3. That is a fun idea! I’m going to look into it! So they basically take your childs interest and send recommendations?
    Our favorite store is the book store and my kids love to pick their books…I would use this kind of service just to be able to point my kids in a direction!?

  4. I agree that a new teacher would love such a service, and I’m impressed they came up with books you love that were new to you!

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