Press kit — Nubi

About Nubi

Short description

Nubi is an app of illustrated children's stories, ad-free and in 6 languages, made for kids aged 3 to 6. Now parents can record their own voice to accompany the reading.

Long description

Nubi turns bedtime into a ritual of calm and connection. It is an app of illustrated children’s stories, with no ads or distracting buttons, available in six languages (Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian and German). Its stories, with short, warm texts, are made for kids aged 3 to 6. The stories can be downloaded and read offline, and parents can record their own voice reading each page: so their kids hear them narrate the story even when they’re away. Nubi offers free stories to get started, plus the option to add individual stories, packs or a membership with access to the whole catalog. Developed by 99UNO.

Quick facts

What it is: App of illustrated children's stories
Age: Made for kids aged 3 to 6
Languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian and German
Audio: Parents can record their voice reading each story
Ad-free: Zero ads and no external links
Offline: Downloaded stories can be read offline
Platforms: iOS and Android
Company: 99UNO

Three stories you could write

These are not three versions of the same piece: they are three different stories for three different desks. Need another angle? Just ask.

The voice that stays

Parents who record their voice for the children they will not be there to put to bed

The one who travels for work. The one who separated and has their child half the week. The grandmother in another city. The one who works nights. We added voice recording as a nice little touch, and it became the feature for the people who cannot be there. The recording stays on the device: it is never uploaded to a server.

For society, family and parenting desks. We can put you in touch with families willing to talk.

What is on the screen

The question is not how many minutes of screen time, it is who is sitting next to the child

Nubi is a screen and we are not going to dodge that. Which is exactly why we have something uncomfortable to say about a debate that usually stops at counting minutes. The evidence on shared reading points elsewhere: what moves vocabulary most is not how much you read to a child, but whether you ask questions and wait for the answer.

For technology, education and society desks. We are available for the critical piece, not only the friendly one.

A story as a tool

How do you explain to a four-year-old that a sibling is on the way

There are moments in raising a child when the words run out: moving house, the first day of preschool, the fear of thunder, missing someone, a new baby. Children’s literature has always handled this. What we add is a catalogue organised by the situation rather than the title, so an adult can search for whatever is happening this week.

For culture and children’s literature desks. We can suggest specialists as independent sources.

Research, with sources

Verifiable figures on shared reading in early childhood, with the full citation. They are about shared reading in general, not about Nubi.

Finding	Figure	Source
Extra words heard before starting school by a child who is read to every day, compared with one who is never read to	1,400,000	Logan, Justice, Yumuş & Chaparro-Moreno (2019), Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics — “The Million Word Gap”, Ohio State University
Cumulative exposure by age 5 by frequency: never · 1-2 times a week · every day	4,662 · 63,570 · 296,660	Logan et al. (2019), misma escala
Words per year equivalent to twenty minutes of reading a day	1,800,000	Anderson, Wilson & Fielding (1988)
Effect size of shared reading on oral language and emergent literacy	d ≈ 0.59	Bus, van IJzendoorn & Pellegrini (1995), Review of Educational Research
Asking questions and waiting for the answer while reading (dialogic reading) improves the vocabulary a child actually uses to speak. There are randomised studies: this is causation, not correlation	causal	Whitehurst et al.; meta-análisis de Mol, Bus, de Jong & Smeets (2008)
The honest limit: shared reading builds comprehension (vocabulary, syntax, following a story). It does not teach decoding; sounding out letters requires explicit instruction	—	National Early Literacy Panel (2008)

Quotes you can use

Cleared for publication as they are. If you need a quote on another point, write to me and I will provide one.

“I made Nubi because my daughter wanted a new story every night and I had to make one up on the spot. Then I thought that if it was illustrated she would want to look at it on her own, so I added audio to make the experience complete.”
Javier D'Accorso, father and founder of Nubi

“I added voice recording thinking of it as a nice little touch. It is used by the people who will not be there: the one who travels, the one who separated, the grandmother who lives far away.”
Javier D'Accorso, father and founder of Nubi

“I did not sort the catalogue by title, I sorted it by whatever the child is going through this week. A parent is not looking for a story, they are looking for how to talk about the baby who is coming.”
Javier D'Accorso, father and founder of Nubi