StoryBites

StoryBites turns kids’ interests into personalized, dyslexia-friendly audiobooks with natural narration — keeping them engaged while building vocabulary and reading comprehension.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for StoryBites came from a close friend with dyslexia who had to travel to another country just to access specialized education. Their experience revealed a critical gap: accessible, engaging reading tools for children with dyslexia are rare and often expensive. We wanted to create something different — a tool that doesn't just make reading possible, but makes it fun, personalized, and empowering. StoryBites helps kids build vocabulary and confidence while enjoying stories crafted just for them.

What it does

StoryBites creates personalized, bite-sized audiobooks tailored to each child's unique interests and reading level. Parents or educators simply enter the child's name, age, and interests, and our AI generates a custom story with:

  • Dyslexia-friendly formatting using OpenDyslexic font and optimized spacing
  • Synchronized narration that highlights text word-by-word as it's read aloud
  • Interactive vocabulary support with click-to-hear pronunciation and definitions
  • Engaging, age-appropriate content that matches each child's interests

Kids can follow along with the highlighted text, listen to natural AI narration, and learn new words in context — all while enjoying a story made just for them.

How we built it

We built StoryBites using a modern full-stack architecture:

  • Frontend: React 19.2 with Tailwind CSS for a responsive, accessible interface
  • Backend: Vercel serverless functions for scalable API endpoints
  • AI & Services:
    • Google Gemini AI for intelligent, contextual story generation
    • ElevenLabs for high-quality, natural-sounding voice narration
    • Snowflake for efficient data warehousing
    • Auth0 for secure user authentication
  • Accessibility: OpenDyslexic font, high-contrast design, and keyboard navigation support

Challenges we ran into

Integrating multiple complex features into one seamless experience was our biggest challenge. We tackled:

  • Audio-text synchronization: Ensuring voice narration perfectly matches highlighted text in real-time
  • Consistent AI generation: Crafting prompts that produce age-appropriate, engaging stories every time
  • Vocabulary integration: Dynamically defining custom words within story context
  • Audio controls: Building reliable play/pause/replay functionality with sentence-level navigation
  • Performance optimization: Handling real-time audio processing without lag

Each feature required extensive iteration and creative problem-solving to work smoothly together.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're incredibly proud of several achievements:

  • Rapid learning: We mastered multiple new technologies (Gemini AI, ElevenLabs, Snowflake) in just 36 hours
  • Team synergy: Our collaboration was seamless, with linear progress from concept to deployment
  • Accessibility-first design: We built a truly inclusive platform that prioritizes dyslexic readers
  • Production deployment: We delivered a fully functional, deployed application at storybites.vip
  • Real impact: We created a tool that can genuinely help children overcome reading barriers

What we learned

This project taught us invaluable lessons:

  • How to orchestrate multiple APIs and services into a cohesive user experience
  • The critical importance of prompt engineering when working with AI-generated content
  • How accessibility considerations must be central to design, not an afterthought
  • The technical challenges of synchronization, real-time audio processing, and performance optimization
  • Most importantly: technology's power multiplies when built with empathy and purpose

What's next for StoryBites

We see tremendous potential for StoryBites beyond this hackathon. Our roadmap includes:

  • Enhanced vocabulary features: Word games, flashcards, and spaced repetition learning
  • Story variety: Multiple genres, difficulty levels, and story lengths
  • Expanded accessibility: Support for other learning differences (ADHD, visual impairments)
  • Progress tracking: Reading analytics and achievement systems to motivate young readers
  • Community features: Story sharing, parent/teacher dashboards, and reading goals
  • Multilingual support: Making StoryBites accessible to non-English speakers

We're committed to developing StoryBites into a tool that truly makes a difference for families and educators supporting children with dyslexia.

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