Reading books with kids can be a fun bonding activity, but you can’t always be there to engage with the little ones. With Sparkup, even if you can’t be with your kids, they’ll still be able to read along with you. The “magical book reader” lets you record your voice as you read a book, so in the future your kids can hear your voice as they read the book.

Sparkup works with books that have large pictures and are more than 7″ wide. Its camera helps it detect which page is being read so that it can play the appropriate recording. It has 256MB of storage, enough for 250 minutes of audio or about 50 books. You can store multiple recordings for different books, but as of this writing each book must only have one recording associated with it. Sparkup says it will release a software update so that you can load multiple recordings for the same book and let the reader choose which recording to hear.

Because the device doesn’t actually care what you record, you can use it to add sound effects or leave messages instead of reading the text. Here’s a brief demo and instructional guide for Sparkup:

You can order Sparkup from its online store for $60 (USD) each. The store also sells books that already have audio recordings.

[via Re/code]