🌱 Coming soon to the App Store

Every story you share is practice for real life.

Books let children meet big feelings, hard goodbyes, and brand-new ideas, safely, with you right beside them. shelfling makes that shared reading easy to keep up, and quietly holds onto everything it grows into.

🌱 Join the waitlist See how it works
Free, full-featured plan No streaks, no pressure Built for ages 0-12
📚 12 stories shared together this month
🌳 Pip just grew a stage
For Families

Built for the moments you share.

Every feature here exists for one reason: to get you and your child into more books together, and to lift the quiet mental load of remembering, choosing, and keeping track.

📚

Add books in seconds

Scan a barcode and a book is on the shelf. Library Haul mode clears a whole stack in one pass, so the admin disappears and the reading begins.

🔄

Smart Shelf Rotation

shelfling suggests which books to keep within reach next, shaped by your child's age, the season, and what they've been drawn to lately. One less thing to decide at the end of a long day.

🔍

Discover & Ask Pip

Not sure what's next? Ask Pip in plain words and get four picks chosen for your child's age and interests, or browse curated titles by theme and stage. Try it below ↓

🌍

Kid Mode

Your child gets their own world: Sprout World, Dino World, Space Explorer, Enchanted World, Deep Sea, or Wild Explorer. They can react to books and flag the ones they want next. A simple way for them to say "read this one with me."

🏆

Shared reading challenges

Take on 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, Read Before You Can Read, or a Summer Reading Sprint. Family goals you move toward together, at your own pace.

💛

Memory Lane

Save the quotes, the questions, and the moments a book sparked. Over the years it becomes a record of how your child saw the world, and how that slowly changed.

Meet Pip

Growth you can actually see.

Pip is your child's reading companion. With every book you share, Pip grows from a tiny seedling into an ancient tree. Growth here is steady and visible, mirrors the reader your child is becoming, and waits patiently whenever life gets busy.

  • 🌱

    Six growth stages

    Seedling, Sprout, Sapling, Bush, Tree, Ancient. Each one is a quiet celebration of how far your reader has come.

  • 🏅

    Gentle milestones

    20+ badges across five categories, earned for curiosity and steady reading habits.

  • 💬

    Pip speaks with warmth

    Encouraging, warm, and patient. Pip celebrates reading the way a kind friend would.

✨ Try it: log a story
Pip at the Seedling stage
Seedling
This is how it feels in the app.
Stage 1: SeedlingSeedling
Stage 2: SproutSprout
Stage 3: SaplingSapling
Stage 4: BushBush
Stage 5: TreeTree
Stage 6: AncientAncient
Ask Pip

"What should we read next?" Solved.

In the app, you ask Pip in plain words and get four picks tuned to your child. Here's a small taste. Choose an age and an interest.

My child is…
…and right now they love

A small taste with well-loved classics. In the app, Pip draws on a hand-checked children's catalog and knows your child's age, interests, and what's already on your shelf.

Why shelfling

A reading app that points back to the book.

shelfling was built by someone who has spent a career alongside children and families. Every choice here follows from how young readers actually grow, and from a belief that the app should serve the relationship between you and your child.

📖

Real books, real togetherness

shelfling is the quiet layer around the books already in your home, and the reading you do side by side. The story stays on paper, where it belongs.

🌿

No dark patterns

No punishing streaks, no guilt-trip notifications, no ads. Growth here is gentle on purpose, because reading thrives on warmth.

🤝

It makes "read with me" easy to hear

Children ask for connection in ways that are easy to miss. Kid Mode reactions and the reading queue turn a vague bid into a clear, answerable invitation.

💚

Genuinely free to start

Every family gets a full-featured free plan that lasts. A child's reading life belongs in the open, so the essentials are free for every family.

Read the full story behind shelfling
How It Works

Set up in minutes.

No tutorials, no learning curve. Open the app and start reading.

1

Create your family

Add your child's name and age, and let them choose their world: Sprout World, Dino World, Space Explorer, and more. Personal from the very first screen.

2

Add your bookshelf

Use Library Haul to scan a whole pile at once, or add books one at a time by search or barcode. Your shelf, organized in a few minutes.

3

Read, and watch it grow

Share a book, log it together, and see Pip grow. The shelf rotates, milestones arrive gently, and reading becomes a ritual your family looks forward to.

Coming to iPhone

Choose how you'd like to hear from us.

Most families just want one note at launch. Early access is a smaller list for families who'd like to try shelfling first and help shape it.

Best for most families

Join the waitlist

One email when shelfling reaches the App Store. Nothing else, ever.

Join the waitlist
For testers

Apply for early access

Want to be early and help shape the app? Join the tester list and we'll reach out if it's a fit.

Pricing

Start free. Grow from there.

Every family gets a real, full-featured free plan. Upgrade if and when your family wants more.

Free Forever

Family

$0
No credit card needed
  • One child profile
  • Unlimited book tracking
  • Growth Garden + Pip
  • 4 Kid Mode worlds
  • Smart Shelf Rotation
  • Shared reading challenges
  • Memory Lane keepsakes
  • Milestones & achievement badges
Join the waitlist
Most Loved

shelfling+

$4.99
per month · or $39.99/year
  • Unlimited children
  • All 6 Kid Mode worlds
  • All 6 app themes
  • Magic Storyteller
  • Story Time (build a tale together)
  • For Parents handbooks
  • Everything in Free
Join the waitlist

Cancel anytime. The free plan stays free, for good.

Questions

The things families ask first.

Is shelfling more screen time for my child?
shelfling is built to point your family back to paper. You log a story after you've shared it, and the app always leads back to the book and the people in the room. Kid Mode is a small, calm space where your child can react to books and ask for the next one.
Is it really free?
Yes. The free plan is complete: unlimited book tracking, Pip and the Growth Garden, challenges, Memory Lane, and four Kid Mode worlds. It stays complete and it stays free. shelfling+ adds extras like more worlds, themes, and the Magic Storyteller for families who want them.
How do you handle my child's privacy?
Like it's the whole point. Your family's reading data lives on your device. There are no ads, no selling of data, and parental consent is built into onboarding. Read the Privacy Policy and our COPPA notice. Both are written in plain English.
What ages is shelfling for?
It shines brightest for ages 0–6, when shared reading is most of reading, and it grows with your family through age 12. Each child gets their own profile, interests, and world, so siblings each have their own garden.
When does it launch, and on what devices?
shelfling is coming soon to iPhone, with the App Store launch around the corner. Join the waitlist for exactly one email when it's live, or apply for early access above if you'd like to help test before then.

For investors & press

shelfling is an independent iOS app heading to the App Store. If you'd like an early look at the product, the roadmap, or press assets, we'd love to talk.

Get in touch
Pip

Every book is a new branch.

Save your spot for launch, or apply to test if you'd like to be early.

🌱 Join the waitlist Apply to test ✉️ Say hello