How long will it take to read aloud?

Paste any story (or a word count) and get the honest read-aloud time — at a cozy picture-book pace and a fluent pace.

How the estimate works

Adults reading silently manage 200–250 words a minute, but reading aloud to a child is a different sport. With page turns, pointing, questions, and doing the wolf's voice properly, a picture book flows at about 100 words a minute; a smooth, uninterrupted read-aloud of longer text sits nearer 140.

What changes the pace

• Interaction: "Where's the kitten?" can happily double a page's dwell time — that's a feature, not a delay.
• Two languages: reading a spread in both languages roughly doubles its time — or alternate: one language tonight, the other tomorrow.
• New readers: when a child reads their page, budget three to four times the adult pace, plus applause.

Sizing a story to the evening

A typical Favola early-reader fable runs 300–500 words per language — a relaxed 5–8 minute read-aloud, or a dozen cozy minutes bilingually. That's deliberate: long enough for a real story arc, short enough that "one more time" is a yes.