☀ Summer mode ❄ Cozy mode

It's summer at the spark-and-anvil carnival!

Mid-year break. Cozy up and read.

66 free chapter books. Pick a friend, read their chapter, and find out what they're up to this summer.

66 free chapter books. Quiet-time reading for the school holidays.

Read a book → Meet the cast → Browse chapters → How our apps teach →
Today's summer pick
Today's cozy pick
BioForge cover
BioForge Download · free

12 of 454 characters with illustrated storybook chapters. New picks every day.

Browse all characters →

Freshly updated

Cast chapters — read with audio

18 characters whose multi-beat illustrated chapter + audio drama landed most recently.

All chapters →
Freshly updated

Ensemble chapters — full-cast scenes

Interleaved pilots that bring multiple cast members together, beat by beat.

All chapters →
Freshly updated

Printable chapter books

Free PDF editions with QR codes that link back to the audio drama.

All books →
Browse by subject

Math, reading + writing, science, civics, creative arts, mindfulness + SEL, and together-mode apps. Pick a section to see the apps + the cast of characters who teach each curricular concept.

All subjects →

Free forever.
Educational apps,
forged for curiosity.

Spark & Anvil's 143 apps for kids ages 5–14 are all free, forever. On-device AI mentors. Your child's data never leaves the device — because we collect none. How we keep it that way →

135 apps for tweens (ages 9–14) + a Younger Cluster for ages 5–8 rolling out in 2027.

122 free chapter books · 1025 characters · 454 chapter pages · forever free · see the full impact →

Browse 143 apps Support the mission →

For parents

Privacy you can verify. Apps your kid actually uses.

For parents → Now Recruiting

For teachers

Earn 100% of class fees. Pilot live classes in 2027.

Apply to the early pilot →

Donors

Keep 140 apps free forever. Tax-deductible via fiscal sponsor.

Support the mission →

Press

Press kit, brand assets, founder bio.

Press kit →

The work, in numbers.

Updated 2026-05-23. See the full impact report →

143
Apple-platform apps
663
illustrated chapter books
21
curriculum frameworks
80
trauma-informed gates
0
ads · IAPs · trackers
100%
free, forever
New · 2026

663 illustrated chapter books. Audio drama for every cast character.

Every named character in every Spark & Anvil app now has their own illustrated chapter book + audio drama "read along." Magic-Tree-House / Wimpy-Kid register; ages 9–14. The cast IS the curriculum — read the ensemble together.

Browse all 663 chapter books → Read Sir Pinwell (sample chapter)
· ~530K–1M words of authored long-form chapter prose, free to read
· ~5 hours of audio drama with WebVTT transcripts (WCAG AA)
· 1,323 chunky-cartoon illustrations across opener + spot pairs
· SAMHSA TIP 57 register + trauma-safety guardrails (24 reviewer-cleared chapters)

Five ways your kid engages

Built around Learn, Play, Create, Reflect, and Together

Every app maps to one or more of five engagement modes. Most apps blend two or three — Learn pairs the AI mentor, Play wraps the game shell, Create gives kids something to ship, Reflect gives them a calm space to think about their own thinking, and Together opens shared-device co-play modes for family-and-classroom moments.

Learn

131 apps · 77 primary

Structured instruction, guided practice, and skill progression. Every Learn-mode app pairs your kid with an on-device AI mentor that scaffolds new concepts, gives hints without giving answers, and tracks mastery against recognized standards.

Featuring · 143 apps

Distributed-narrative apps

Recurring named characters who embody the curriculum — each one teaches a specific concept by being who they are, not by lecturing. Grounded in Bruner narrative learning + Habgood intrinsic integration.

ActiveForge AdventureHub AiForge AlcumusForge BeatForge BioForge + 137 more
Explore the distributed-narrative apps →
See all Learn apps →

Play

56 apps · 20 primary

Game-like engagement that pulls kids in. Adventures, RPGs, escape rooms, championships, and multiplayer where the curriculum is built into the game system itself — what researchers call "intrinsic integration."

Featuring · 8 apps

Adventure modes

Full RPG / quest / escape-room game shells across the portfolio. AdventureHub aggregates threads: solve a puzzle in one app, level up your shared character in another.

AdventureHub ChronoQuest EscapeForge FitQuest Forgearena MindForge + 2 more
Explore the adventure modes →
See all Play apps →

Create

48 apps · 33 primary

Build, compose, write, design. Every Create-mode app is a studio: kids leave with something they made — a song, a character sheet, a story, a circuit, a recipe, a magic trick — that they can show, share, or take into another app.

Featuring · 18 apps

Sound, image, voice, and music studios

The multimedia cluster: lyric + melody composition, voice-first storytelling, image craft (pixel art, manga, illusions), video editing, and figurative-language writing. The "shippable artifact" cluster.

BeatForge DialogueQuest EffectsForge EnsembleQuest FigureForge FrameQuest + 12 more
Explore the sound, image, voice, and music studios →
See all Create apps →

Reflect

25 apps · 10 primary

Identity work, metacognition, mood + body awareness, and structured perspective-taking. Every Reflect-mode app gives your kid a calm space to think about their own thinking — supported by recurring cast members who model the practice.

Featuring · 10 apps

META cast across the portfolio

Notice, Reflect, Settle, Counsel, Coach, Vet, Guard, Credit-Keeper — the kid-readable mentors who help your kid review their own work, choices, and feelings across every app.

CoRegRealm EthosForge FocusForge HuggyHabits InclusionForge MicrobeLab + 4 more
Explore the meta cast across the portfolio →
See all Reflect apps →

Together

43 apps · 11 primary

Pass-and-play modes, family-cooperative rounds, dyadic co-regulation pairs, and aggregator hubs where the gameplay IS the shared moment. Every Together-mode app is designed for two-or-more humans on one device — couch-coop, dinner table, classroom group, rainy Saturday afternoon.

Featuring · 10 apps

Pass-and-play differentiator

Apps designed for face-to-face play — couch-coop, hot-seat, parent-child pass-the-device, family cooperative rounds. The research is clear: kids learn faster, and feel safer, when an adult is co-present in the play moment.

AdventureHub DealTales EnsembleQuest Forgearena ForgeClassroom ForgePortal + 4 more
Explore the pass-and-play differentiator →
See all Together apps →

How our apps teach

Characters who ARE the curriculum

Not characters bolted onto worksheets. In 143 of our apps, every concept your kid needs to learn is embodied by a recurring character — so abstract patterns become memorable through story.

Sir Pinwell (cast member of GambitTales)
Sir Pinwell GambitTales
Direct-Proof Dora (cast member of ProofQuest)
Direct-Proof Dora ProofQuest
Stride the Pattern-Walker (cast member of FunctionForge)
Stride the Pattern-Walker FunctionForge
Pair the Ratio-Speaker (cast member of RatioRealm)
Pair the Ratio-Speaker RatioRealm
Trill (cast member of MotifLab)
Trill MotifLab

Behavior, not decoration

The character's actions are the rule. Sir Pinwell doesn't talk about pins — he does pins. Your kid learns the pattern by watching, not being told.

Recurring, not random

The same characters appear across many lessons. Familiar faces mean less re-explaining and more time on the actual learning.

Small casts, not crowds

About 10 to 14 characters per app — never dozens. Kids can keep that many in mind, like a Pixar movie ensemble.

Story carries the work

When kids care about a character, they remember what that character did. That memory is the curriculum — grounded in Bruner, Sfard, and Habgood's learning research.

How distributed-narrative works →

Meet your mentors

Every Spark & Anvil app comes with a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, praises, and patiently guides your kid through new skills.

ActiveForge mascot
ActiveForge
AdventureHub mascot
AdventureHub
AiForge mascot
AiForge
AlcumusForge mascot
AlcumusForge
BeatForge mascot
BeatForge
BioForge mascot
BioForge
BiomeForge mascot
BiomeForge
BridgeForge mascot
BridgeForge
CardForge mascot
CardForge
ChanceForge mascot
ChanceForge
ChemQuest mascot
ChemQuest
ChronoQuest mascot
ChronoQuest

Why Spark & Anvil

⚒️

Craft

Swift 6, SwiftUI, on-device AI via FoundationModels. Native apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro that feel like the platform — not web shells, not cross-platform compromises.

🛡️

Safety

No tracking. No ads. No in-app purchases. No third-party SDKs. All data stays on-device. COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments.

🌟

Range

143 apps across STEM, STEAM, Academics, DIR/FEDC, and Special Interest verticals — for the kid who's obsessed with rockets AND the one who's obsessed with sonnets.

Featured apps

See all 143 →
CuriosityQuest icon CuriosityQuest mascot

CuriosityQuest

special-interest

A daily-question adventure that builds curiosity into habit.

Distributed-Narrative Coming soon
CubeSensei icon CubeSensei mascot

CubeSensei

special-interest

Learn the Rubik's Cube with a patient mentor and bite-sized practice.

Distributed-Narrative Coming soon
QuillSpell icon QuillSpell mascot

QuillSpell

special-interest

Spelling and vocabulary mastery through pattern recognition and play.

Distributed-Narrative Coming soon
MindForge icon MindForge mascot

MindForge

dir-fedc

Adventure RPG where players navigate social scenarios, manage stress through mini-games, and build emotional intelligence by helping NPCs resolve conflicts. Combines CASEL's 5 core competencies with SHAPE America's National Health Education Standards in a quest-based format. AI-driven NPCs respond to player choices with realistic emotional reactions.

Distributed-Narrative
FocusForge icon FocusForge mascot

FocusForge

dir-fedc

A gamified executive function training adventure for students ages 9-14, with specific design for ADHD and other neurodivergent learners. Players build study skills through six EF domains: working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, planning/organization, task initiation, and time awareness.

Distributed-Narrative
BioForge icon BioForge mascot

BioForge

stem

Players learn anatomy and biomechanics through the lens of sports -- understanding how muscles generate force, how joints create leverage, how the cardiovascular system fuels performance, and how training improves the body. Each sport unlocks new body systems and biomechanical principles. The only sports-science-meets-anatomy app on any platform.

Distributed-Narrative

Five learning verticals

Every app maps to one of five learning areas. Browse the portfolio by what interests your kid most.

STEM (42)

Math, science, engineering, and applied tech.

STEAM (20)

Music, art, dance, theater, and creative making.

Academics (28)

Reading, writing, language, civics, history, and critical thinking.

DIR / FEDC (9)

Affect, regulation, and developmental capacity scaffolding.

Special Interest (36)

Cubing, cartography, paleontology, wildlife, and more.

Apps your kid can actually use.
Privacy you can actually verify.

Read our full privacy commitment and the parent-friendly summary of how we handle data.

For parents For educators