The world is simply too large a classroom for its limited number of teachers. This strains education systems around the world and equally health systems around the world: how do we improve access to the knowledge everyone should have to the farthest reaches of the planet? Do we first teach everyone to read?

An organization called [Speaking Books](http://www.speakingbooks.com/) has a conversation-starting solution. They’ve remodeled what many recall as a favorite children’s toy into an “edutainment” tool capable of teaching many people at the touch of a button. Introduced in 2005 at the Global Health Conference in Washington, DC, the organization has since expanded to offer educational speaking books aimed at improving literacy, health education, and social development, in myriad languages.