About
The Huey Books team (previously Wriveted) is on a mission to get children addicted to reading, starting with books they love.
Huey is based in Australia and New Zealand. We're a small team obsessed with the idea of using a love of books to get children on the path to success in education and in life.
But why do children need to enjoy reading?
The OECD has found that reading enjoyment is a more critical factor in a child's educational success than their socioeconomic background.
Reading for pleasure is beneficial to children in multiple ways, including text comprehension and grammar, breadth of vocabulary, general knowledge, a better understanding of other cultures, and a greater insight into human nature and decision-making.
Encouraging children to read is a complex art that involves the whole community - librarians, teachers and parents (at the very least). Huey Books believes that by making it easy and fun to choose from the overwhelming amount of books, children are more likely to quickly find a book they love, and then find a path to becoming a lifelong reader.
Enter Huey the Bookbot.
Who is Huey the Bookbot?
The team behind Huey Books has been experimenting with conversational interfaces, machine learning, hardware and book labelling to create a 'bookbot' that makes it fun for children to find books they love.
The friendly and fun web-based, chatbot interface is designed to be a simple and engaging way for children to discover books for themselves. Behind the scenes, the book recommendation engine maps reading ability and interests.
Regardless of a child's exposure to books, or understanding of existing book categories, their tastes and interests can be quickly determined and then matched to books they will enjoy.
Talk to Huey now to find books for a child.
Meena Tharmarajah, CEOUX designer, retired rollercoaster operator and expert in trustworthy machine learning. Makes a mean salted caramel ice cream. Read the entire fairytale section at the library.
The Wolf Wilder, Katherine Rundell (2015)
Brian Thorne, Chief Technology OfficerTechnophobe meets cyberpunk wannabe. Mountain-dweller. Tries to not look mad whilst talking to his computer. Puts on the worst voices, whilst reading bedtime stories to his two kids.
The Famous Five, Enid Blyton (1942)
Joshua Landy, Full Stack Software EngineerA software engineer with an addiction to crime stories, tennis, and spoiling his Italian Greyhound. Still doesn't have his pen licence.
The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (1999)
Denis Khoshaba, DevOps EngineerStruggling jazz musician and science whiz. Read his brother's (inappropriate) hand me down books as a kid.
Aesop's Fables (4th century BCE)