What we do, and what we don't.

Designed for children

Adult devices were never built for kids. Cali products are. Every choice — the format, the interface, the pace, the safety — starts from how a child actually learns and develops.

Nothing comes between a child and the story

Cali products don't connect to anything else. No advertising. No data collection from the child. No recommendation engines steering what they read or what they hear next. A child using Cali is engaging with a book, not with a platform.

AI is a tool we use, not something children talk to

Our comprehension questions are written by educators. AI works behind the scenes to match each question to a child's reading level and to voice the characters who deliver them. We do not build conversational AI for kids.

Built with researchers and educators

Cali products are co-designed with children through Sesame Workshop's Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Our research is led by Dr. Anne Blackstock-Bernstein, an education researcher and lecturer at UCLA who has shaped California state literacy standards. We're funded by grants from the NSF and NIH. Our claims about reading are grounded in what the evidence shows.

Made by people

Our stories are written by writers, drawn by illustrators, narrated by voice artists, and scored by musicians — all human, all credited. We do not use AI to generate the text, illustrations, voices, or music in any Cali's Books product.