Is Teach Your Monster to Read safe for kids?

Name: Is Teach Your Monster to Read safe for kids?
Item: Teach Your Monster to Read
Rating: 8.8
Author: Sprout & Screen

by Teach Your Monster · iOS + Android · 1,000,000+ installs · 31,581 ratings

8.8/ 10

Worth the one-time $9 — ad-free, with no subscription trap.

Solid overall — just check the flags below before you download.

Our focus: ages 2-5

Price

$8.99

Ads to kids

In-app purchases

None

Data shared

None

Stranger contact

Not verified

Data collected

10 types

The scorecard

Safety & privacy7collects location (-2); collects device/user IDs (-1)
Age-fit (2–5)10band 0-5 vs wedge 2-5
Quality8.3store-rating proxy 4.2/5
Monetization fairness10paid app ($8.99) — no ads, no IAP

What we found — safety & privacy

No ads shown to children
No in-app purchases — nothing to accidentally buy
Doesn’t share data with third parties
Collects location + device/user IDs
You can request that collected data be deleted
Contact with strangers / chat — not yet verified (research stage)

Data collected (Android Data Safety): Name, Email address, User IDs, App interactions, Other actions, Device or other IDs, Crash logs, Diagnostics, Other app performance data, Approximate location — data is encrypted in transit; you can request that data be deleted; committed to follow the play families policy.

Is it right for a 2–5-year-old?

Store age ratings: 4+ (Apple) · Everyone (Google) — within our ages-2-5 focus.

Cost & availability

$8.99. No in-app purchases. No ads. Available on iOS + Android.

View on the App Store →View on Google Play →

How it makes money

It makes money through an upfront purchase ($8.99).

Set it up safe (60 seconds)

Turn on Guided Access (iOS) or Screen Pinning (Android) so a small hand can’t wander out of the app.
Set an OS-level screen-time limit — it applies no matter what the app does.

Bottom line

You pay $8.99 once and you're done — no ads, no in-app purchases, and nothing shared with third parties, which is genuinely rare for a kids' app. The one caveat: its data-safety listing shows it collects approximate location and device IDs, so it's not quite as data-light as Khan. Still an easy hand-over for a 3–5-year-old learning to read — just know you're buying it, not renting it.

Parents also ask

Is Teach Your Monster to Read free?

It’s a paid app ($8.99).

Does Teach Your Monster to Read have ads?

No third-party ads are shown to children.

Can my child talk to strangers in it?

We haven’t found a chat or social feature, but we flag stranger-contact as “not yet verified” until a human reviewer confirms it directly.

What age is Teach Your Monster to Read best for?

We focus on ages 2-5. Store age rating: 4+.

How the shelf ranks

Every ages-2-5 app we’ve scored — same rubric, honest numbers.