1092 Standard (ages 9-12) and 834 Advanced (ages 11-14) illustrated chapter books across 143 apps — mapped to recognized curriculum standards. Free forever; ad-free; no tracking. Designed for classroom use, parent co-reading, and library lists.
Looking for compliance + curriculum-mapping details? See For Educators (overview).
Each chapter character embodies one curricular primitive. The chip shows what to use that primitive for; the prompt suggests one classroom move you can try this week.
Classroom prompt: Pair a chapter character with a CCSS skill the kid is currently practicing — let the character's recurring behavior model the skill before the kid attempts it.
Browse CCSS-aligned chapters →Classroom prompt: Use chapter cast members as anchoring phenomena. Each character embodies one science primitive; ask kids to predict the character's next move before reading.
Browse NGSS-aligned chapters →Classroom prompt: Have students remix one chapter scene as a 3-minute classroom performance. The voice register card in each chapter is the actor's guide.
Browse NCAS-aligned chapters →Classroom prompt: Use a chapter's relationships section (alliance + tension table) as a starter conversation about social structures the kid recognizes in their own community.
Browse C3-aligned chapters →Classroom prompt: Pair a chapter with the matching app. Have students compare how the character behaves on the page vs. on the screen; this surfaces the curricular primitive twice.
Browse ISTE-aligned chapters →Standard filter chips on /stories are Phase 1; per-chapter standards tagging arrives in Phase 2 (educator-suggestion-driven per community curation below).
One chapter + one cluster + one classroom move to try. Rotated monthly; the monthly educator email below carries the full feature with use-prompts and a parent-share PDF.
The PIN — a piece cannot move because doing so exposes a more valuable piece behind it
from GambitTales
Try in class: read the opening scene aloud, stop at the first moment Pinwell rearranges books by color (it's intentional vs the "correct" call-number system), and ask: "Whose rule is right? Is there a Pinwell in your library?" Then read on — the pin tactic is named through the same scene structure.
Read the chapter →Nine characters across flightforge / circuitforge / gambittales / proofquest / functionforge / fractionforge whose recurring move IS the curricular primitive — voltage, current, the chess pin, the linear function as walking, the birthday-pie fraction.
Try in class: assign each kid one character from the cluster as a "tracker." For the next two weeks, when their character's primitive shows up in any text, game, or worksheet, they raise a hand. By week 2 you'll see the cluster in every subject.
Browse the cluster →60 minutes. The founder + 2-3 invited educators. We open with the featured chapter, then share what's working in the classrooms in our early pilot. Bring one chapter you've used (or want to use); we'll workshop a classroom move together. Recordings posted to the next month's newsletter so attendance is genuinely optional.
Phase 1 logistics: free Zoom seat (10 verified educators per call); first 25 RSVPs get the Zoom link by reply email. Adult educators only — no kid attendance per COPPA + per our trauma-informed posture.
Phase 1 reaches a 6-month go/no-go in 2027-Q1. Kill criteria: fewer than 100 verified educator subscribers OR less than 60% month-over-month attendance retention → sunset the Zoom track; keep the newsletter + portal. Source: labsmith community-site research, 2026-06-05.
Phase 2 of the community program adds a one-way suggestion surface so vetted educators can propose chapter edits, standards tagging, classroom-use prompts, or cast-iteration ideas. Suggestions land in a labsmith inbox; the curation team reviews, attributes, and (where adopted) merges. No public commenting in Phase 1 — moderation cost + COPPA + the 24 trauma-gated chapters' SAMHSA TIP 57 register all preclude an open discussion surface this round. The Phase 2 gating criteria + tech-stack rationale are in the community-site research.
Until then: the monthly Zoom + email reply chain are the suggestion channel. Reply to any educator-drop issue or RSVP for a Zoom slot. Suggestions credited in the next issue's "From the educators" footer.
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