A free AI story generator teachers can suggest to families

Peabody (peabody.kids) is a free AI story generator and reading app that teachers can suggest to families for a few minutes of reading practice at home. Children read Peabody's own leveled stories from Pre-K to 8th grade, or make up to three short AI-written stories a day from their own ideas, at their reading level, with sight words or vocabulary words inside. There are no accounts to set up, no student data, and nothing to buy. It's free through the end of 2026.

This post is for teachers, reading specialists and librarians who get asked, "What can we do at home?"

What Peabody is, in a paragraph

A child opens peabody.kids and taps a book or Make my own story! There's no sign-up: one tap makes a reader on that browser with a random pen name. They read a short story at their level, with a quick word warm-up before it and a few questions after, each skippable. If they make their own story, they tap a few idea bubbles and a mood, and the first three pages are ready in seconds. Every idea and story is safety-screened, and children never chat with an AI or with anyone.

What Peabody is not

It's worth being clear, so families get the right expectations:

• Not an assessment. Peabody doesn't produce reading levels for reporting, scores, percentiles or grade-norm comparisons, and it doesn't measure Lexile. It can't hear a child read.
• Not a phonics program. Early-reader stories favour sight words and short sound-it-out words, but Peabody doesn't teach phonics in sequence.
• Not a classroom platform. There's no teacher dashboard, no rosters and no assignments. Nothing about a child is ever sent to a school.
• Not tested in a study yet. It's built on well-studied ideas like spacing practice over several days, and we describe it that way.

Why it might be useful to suggest

• It's free and has no sign-up, so there's no barrier for families who won't create another account.
• Leveled text, measured in code. Library stories are sorted by measured level, from Pre-K to 8th grade, using published readability formulas. AI stories are written for a child's level and measured the same way.
• Practice words inside. Early readers (Pre-K to 1st) get Dolch sight-word stories; readers from 2nd grade up get five vocabulary words per story, each used at least three times. A word counts as "sticking" only after it's right in a cold warm-up on three different days.
• Short, with a finish line. Stories are 20 pages at most, and sessions end. No endless feed.
• A reason to read aloud. When a child finishes a story they made, Read it to someone! puts it in big type for reading to a parent or sibling.
• Accessible for pre-readers. Every line Peabody says can be heard with a 🔊 button, using the browser's built-in speech.

Safety and privacy, for families' questions

Families will ask about AI and children. The short answers:

• No chat. The idea box is one-shot; children never converse with an AI.
• Screened in layers. An idea screen before writing, hard limits in the instructions, code checks for contact details and profanity, an AI screen with a stronger model's second opinion, and anything uncertain held for a person to review.
• Gentle by default. Children without a grown-up's account get gentle stories until 1st grade and never anything past "spooky".
• No personal data asked. No name, email, age or school. Ideas are deleted after screening, and children's own stories never go into the public library.
• No ads, and data is never sold.

More detail: is an AI story generator safe for kids? and no name, no email, no account.

A note you can send home

Feel free to copy and adapt this:

Reading at home: a free idea. Peabody (peabody.kids) is a free reading website with short stories at your child's level, from Pre-K to 8th grade. Your child can also make their own short story from their ideas, written at their level by AI and screened for safety. No sign-up or email is needed. Try a few minutes most evenings: one short story, then let your child read it aloud to you. It's free through the end of 2026.

Using it in the classroom

Peabody isn't built for classrooms, but a few things work:

• Read a library story together on a projector. Each story's page works without an account and shows its level.
• Model making a story with the class choosing a character, a place and a problem from the idea bubbles. It's a quick way to talk about story structure: what the character wants, what gets in the way, how they fix it.
• Story numbers for sharing. A gentle or spooky story a child makes, once it has passed the safety screens, can be read by anyone with its number, like peabody.kids/story/1234. Number pages show only the pen name and are kept out of search engines.

One practical limit: Peabody limits how many new readers can start from one internet connection in an hour, which can matter on a shared school network.

Free stories by level

Starting points for each level are in free stories for kids to read tonight, by reading level, or browse the library directly.

Questions teachers ask

Is Peabody free for students?

Yes. Peabody is free for everyone through 31 December 2026, with no sign-up and nothing to buy. What comes after 2026 hasn't been decided.

Does Peabody share student data with schools?

No. Nothing about a child is ever sent to a school, and a child using Peabody without an account gives no name, email or age at all.

Can I see my students' progress?

No. Peabody has no teacher dashboard. A grown-up with a free family account can see their own child's words, stories and math.

What reading levels does Peabody cover?

The free library runs from Pre-K to 8th grade, sorted by measured level. AI-written stories can be made from first words up to middle-school levels.

Is it appropriate for kindergarten?

Yes, with a grown-up. Pre-K and kindergarten stories have a few words a page and are built to be read together, and every line Peabody says can be heard aloud.