1000 Books Before Kindergarten

I’ve been using the app for a while. It’s pretty easy to scan a barcode to add a book and that works for 90% of the books we’ve read. The latest version also allows you to mark it as read as part of the scanning/adding to library process so the workflow is simpler/faster. You can manually add books when the system cannot scan or find the ISBN. They add to the library just find. My issue is that for some reason if I have to manually add a book to the library it will not add to my readers list. So about 10% of what we’re reading is not getting logged.

Easy to add books with ISBN. But every time I add a book to the library or reading list I have to completely close out of the app for it to update, sometimes multiples times. Very inconvenient and frustrating but takes maybe 1 minute. The bugs need to be improved but I still use the app because it’s easier for me to track on my phone than to write down. Also just an annoyance, when using a screen shot for the cover of the book when manually entering books the picture is blurry. Just irks me. Also I feel like the library that comes with the app is so random? I just went through and deleted all their books and have added mine as we read them to create our own library but that’s more of an irk as well. I think the library should just start out empty and books can just be added. I did have to use the PDF help guides from the website to figure out how to use the app. It would be more helpful to just have the app take you through the steps itself once logged in.

I downloaded this app to help keep track of how many books I’ve read to my child after losing the chart that the library gave me. I’m surprised that nearly half of the books that I try to add are either unlisted (even when I look them up by isbn) or missing information such as a cover image. I think some kind of system for adding these books should be put into place. I’m also a little surprised at how slow the app is. It took a while to add my son as a reader because when I clicked the “yes” button it would just go back to the previous screen. After the third time of this I waited a minute and suddenly he loaded as an added reader. The same occasionally happens when I try to add a book. It sometimes takes restarting the app for his read book count to go up. I do like that you can scan the barcode to add some books. This is really convenient and definitely a time saver. I also like that it makes it easy to keep track of what books he has read and that you can share the list. I have been keeping a log of the books he’s read (but again I misplaced it T.T)

The app is a good idea but the task of adding books manually as well as adding books from the library to the reading list doesn’t work well. Many times after clicking “read,” the book doesn’t make it to the reading list, therefore not counting the book and not keeping record of which books we’ve read. I’ve also had the app just close on me while it was in use. Additionally, when you manually add a book, you can’t go back to make edits if you want to add a photo or misspell something, for example. They also don’t have an option to write the ISBN number manually. Overall, the app needs to fix these issues to make it worth keeping. Too time consuming for such a simple task.

I was happy to find an app that would track my grandkids reading. I had really hoped to get my 5 and 3 year olds successfully on the right track to loving books and learning. We had started a paper trail previously but a move and eventual pandemic lockdown curtailed that method. While we have been reading a lot, the app doesn’t reflect this for the following reason: What I would like to see is an easier way to upload books. Many we finished either didn’t have a recognizable ISBN to scan or had inadequate author/publisher info that the app would accept. Once a book would be added, it would be helpful to allow favorites that get read multiple times to be tallied. If the app has the capability to do these suggestions already, please show me how it does. Thank you

I love the idea of this app. My issues are as follows: (1) can’t add photo of a book - it only opens the photo album and there’s only one photo and it’s the one I uploaded of my child for her PFP (2) the isbn scanner doesn’t have every title (or it pulls up the wrong book) so you have to manually input which is fine BUT (3) the search page is flawed. I should be able to search for any book uploaded by any user but unfortunately that’s not the case. I look forward to the day the app is smooth and easy to use. Our daughter is 2.5 and she’s got 175 books on her “read” list, but it’s inaccurate because of how difficult it is to search for or manually add books.

I like that it’s easier than paper because I kept losing our list. I wish at the end I could print the list as some programs around my location have you turn it in for prizes. And as always, I hope more books get added by the barcode as entering them manually isn’t as easy.

I was excited to use the app to keep track of my reader’s books, but I had a hard time signing up and got an error. I messaged the group on Facebook and they were able to fix it. When I went to add my reader it wouldn’t move on to the next screen when the profile was completed, so it created multiple profiles that I ended up deleting. When you add books to the library, it works fine scanning the ISBN, but when you try to add the new book as a finished read, it may not add it to the reader’s list. Overall, it’s just okay. Hopefully there are improvements soon.

The app is a great idea but the bugs it has are preventing me from continuing to use it. It is easy to add new books; however I’m having an issue where certain books delete from my library, even after adding them repeatedly. I also have issues where I mark a book as read, but it doesn’t register that our book count increased. I’ll often have to repeatedly mark a book read 2-4x before it registers even once. I also found this bug is more pronounced if I’m marking multiple books at once— the first book registers, and subsequent books have difficulty. Restarting the app works, but this is annoying to do over and over if I have multiple books to log. My son is 11 months old, so we read quite a bit of short books throughout the day. Love the idea but wish the app worked better. Maybe we’ll try it again in the future if improvements are made.

I think the concept behind this app is great; however, it needs some major work. I don’t mind adding books here and there, but I would say 90% of the books we have read aren’t uploaded into the system. I like the idea behind the app of not having to use a sheet of paper that I got from the library. With that being said, If we read several books and night it takes time uploading them into the system. It’s a great idea and with some work this app will be great.

I find that going to Goodreads to get the isbn and copying and pasting works pretty well- I first add it to the main library using the plus sign at the bottom and then going back to the library to add it to my granddaughter’s list. However, it often takes a long time to populate to her list which has been frustrating- I’m thinking of just keeping the list on goodreads, because Goodreads also allows me to say how many times we have read a certain book- such as the 5 times a day my husband reads But Not the Hippopotamus to her!

I thought it’ll be a great idea to Track books in the app vs on paper but it’s been super frustrating! Was super smooth and easy when I was going though our physical library and scanning books until I ran across some that I had to manually enter. That’s when everything started glitching and hasn’t stopped! It keeps force shutting down and not adding books to the library! I’m also surprised at how many books I’m having to manually add with this being a reading app!

Writing my books saves about 10x the amount of time. This app concept is great however there are only about 30 books in the bank. I have to manually add each book which honestly isn’t too terrible if the isbn is present. The big issue is that half the books I add don’t load under my child. I do the same steps each time and after every entry I check and some do not appear. They are in the database because I added them and can see them but they do not show under my child’s profile no matter how many times I add them to his name.

I have used the app to track books for my twin granddaughters since they were several months old - and now they are almost 5 years old. It is a convenient way to track books, when they were read, etc. very easy to use - the girls love to help me scan and enter them

I love the idea behind this! I read to my kids every day and we’re making great progress but I get so frustrated adding books. It always glitches out and will force close the app, not add to their list or even add to the library in general after I’ve done all the work of entering in all the info. I think this app is great, but there’s some bugs that need to be fixed for sure. Keep it up! What you’re doing is great!

This app always has been slow and clunky, but the updated version is driving me bonkers. No option to start typing in a book into the search field anymore - you have to scroll through. No more option to order books by most recently added - it’s now alphabetical. And why - oh why - do I now have to type in my email address and password every time I open the app now??? It takes so long now to log books that I’ve found that I’ve stopped logging books - I literally no longer have time to.

It’s easy to create an account and click that you finished a book; but it seems you can only choose from books the app already lists - which is super limited! There doesn’t appear to be a way to add new titles. So I think you’re left with a choice between reading only the titles 1000BBK suggest (which is foolish) or tapping on random book titles every time you complete a book of your choice to mark the act of having read a book to your child.

This app could be great. As it is now, it’s worthless. There is a limited selection of pre-loaded books to select from. When you attempt to search for a book outside that selection, they don’t show up at all. If this app could somehow connect with the apps libraries use or just had a vastly larger selection of books to choose from, it could be so much better. Hopefully some serious changes happen soon so this app is more relevant.

I like being able to track the books. I also like that I can scan a barcode. I really wish I didn’t have to fully log in every single time I open the app though. It prevents me from just quickly adding a book each time we read one.

I really like the concept of this app, it’s a cool way to track what books you have read. It’s frustrating that the library is so small and I’m constantly adding new books.

I got excited about this concept. My daughter and I easily read 5 or more books a day. Tracking I was hoping would be easy when I saw there is an app. I downloaded to find like 30 books? And cannot figure out how to add my own. Where are the books? I see some people saying they added manually or they scanned them but I don’t see those options. If there was a way to get help I’d appreciate that. Otherwise I guess that was that. 🙄

This app is a brilliant concept! Thanks for the hard work people put in to create and to sponsor it. However, why the incredibly limited reading list when, nowadays, apps can be built to scan and to search ISBN numbers simply by taking a picture? The limited list severely limits the number of books caregivers can add to children’s reading lists.

It would be great if this app had a function to scan your books by the barcode to upload them. Most of the books we read are not on here. I like that it lets you add one book to all of your children at the same time. It would be great if you could click on all the books that you read that day and how many times you read them and add them all at once.

I am writing in hopes to get a response to this review. I cannot figure out how to add books to the reading list or the finished list that aren’t on the prescribed list in the app. The app does not feel very user-friendly. I have read other reviews about standing a barcode, but I see no option to scan. I want to do the 1000 books challenge with my daughter and don’t want to print out the paper logs, but this app doesn’t work very well.

Good concept, but the app is terrible. There are never updates to fix these bugs and glitches. The books do not show up after adding a book to your library and your reading list. You have to close the app and re-open it to get it to add the book to your reading list. Books that are added manually don’t always stay in your library either. These issues need to be addressed.

I love the concept of this and tracking my child’s books, but I’ve been using this app for 14 months now and it remains the glitchiest app I have ever used. There have been some updates but I have not seen any improvement. It regularly logs me out & shuts down entirely when I try to scan a book. I hope to see some improvement before we get to 1000 books!

I was excited to start using this app! It is so disappointing! It is s-l-o-w. If I try to add a book manually, it might take days to load or it might not load at all! If I add more than one book that we just read, it can’t handle that. I am very surprised that this group can not make logging books in an app easy! It certainly takes some of the fun out of the program. Glad I also keep a log on paper. Can’t count on this one to have an accurate list.

It’s a simple concept, but honestly sometimes more frustrating than it’s worth. It will scan the books to add to the library, but then not allow me to save to the reading list of different readers. And if I close the app, it randomly wont save the book in the library at all. For such a simple app, it functions very poorly.

It’s a nice way to keep a list however it could be more user friendly when looking to add books. The search bar should search the entire app not but my library and then the app. And adding a scan feature to simply scan the barcode to pull it up would be so much easier!

Was looking forward to using this app with my toddler and it just doesn’t work. There is not an easy workflow to add a new book you just read to your list. And even when you do, it doesn’t always update the number of books you’ve read on your way to 1000 (and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to refresh). Also, this app is incredibly slow.

I find a lot of books we read do not scan into the system and I have to add manually. This is annoying and takes extra time away from actually reading. Never any updates to this app.

I love the idea of this app and would love to track the books we are reading to our son. However, we find this app glitchy. It doesn’t always log books, sometimes it will log them multiple times, adding books that aren’t already in the library is hit or miss.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix this app. I have to sign in again everyday and it’s extremely frustrating. We just passed 600 books last week and the library is getting big enough that when I try to add a new book, the library force closes. I’m probably going to find another way to track our progress because this is becoming more of a hassle to track daily.

If you happen to read one of the books in the short preloaded reading list, sure it’s easy to add. But what a pain in the (you-know-what) if you’re reading anything else. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to manually add a book, then after typing in the title and author name then submitting, it didn’t show up as read. What a hassle! Not worth my time in its current state.

Was it just me? The app has frozen for days. I kept updating the books my kids read and it’s not keeping the record (the main purpose of the app). I had enjoyed it very much when it worked, especially the feature to scan the ISBN.

You can no longer scan books and you can no longer look at your reading list of the last book you readlike to edit all books in the library, so ones that did scan I can attach a picture to it. Biggest problem is the don’t work on small screens. I have a tiny phone and I can’t scroll down or through. Doesn’t work with 5” screens!

Love being able to scan and add. Would love to be able to start a timer when you start reading to your child and be able to set reading goals besides just the number of books.

I was recommended this program when my son got his first library card. The concept of 1000 books before kindergarten is great but the books I have to add manually don’t go to his read list no matter how many times I try to add them.

Great concept, poor execution. Having a separate library tab in addition to the reading list is confusing. It’s very frustrating to find and add books unless you can scan them - and even then I find that a lot of popular kids books cannot be matched in the database.

I love the concept of this app to help us track our journey of 1000 books before kindergarten. However, the app crashes multiple times a day and frequently logs me out without the option to remember my credentials. This has made the app frustrating to use.

I’ve had to add several books MULTIPLE times to the app and while I am able to finally add them - the app will not count them towards the total books read - regardless of how many times I click read for them :( very frustrating

The app is clunky but once I figure it out it’s easy enough. However about 30% of the time when I add a book as read it doesn’t actually add to the reading list. I have added a 3 books tonight. 2 were fine. The third I have attempted to add 10 times and it just won’t. Very frustrating. Defeats the purpose of the app.

This app doesn’t work half the time. I can’t track books because it refuses to add them to my child’s read list. Sometimes it won’t even let you add a book to the library. Overall, it has been very aggravating when I was so excited to see how many books we read together. Major disappointment.

I spent a lot of time adding books but when I closed out of the app and opened it back up they were gone. Very dissatisfied. Plus everything is difficult to navigate. I feel like every time I open the app I have to re learn how to use it.

I’ve had to manually add most of the books and by the time it takes to do so, I could have read another book to my kids. With 3 little ones it would be nice to just tap a couple of buttons or so to log a book. Because of the time factor, I just don’t keep track.

This app is straight for the garbage. Doesn’t keep your books added to library. Won’t share any data on the share your reading list option. After trying it for a full day I deleted it. Frustrating because it could be a good app if it actually does what it is suppose to do.

The app won’t allow me to add a photo of my daughter. It has a ridiculously small number of books from which to choose and there seems to be no barcode scanner. I don’t yet see how to add a book manually but given these basic shortcomings I don’t think I will bother to continue with it.

There are way too many glitches with this app. It doesn’t accurately keep track of books I’ve marked read. Many books are missing, hard to find, or mislabeled. The scan feature should be nice if it didn’t crash the app every time I tried to use it.

Had to manually add almost all our books as the library seems limited. Then it would take 3-4 times to get the manually added book onto the reader’s list. Great idea, but needs tweaked. I ended up uninstalling and just using Goodreads.

Downloaded this app and it seems like a lot of the key usability issues mentioned in previous reviews have not been addressed. The speed is s slow and manually added books don’t appear on reading list. It’s just really clunky for a tracking app