Building an Interactive Kids Story Generator with React Native and Hugging Face API

In this post, we’ll walk through building a React Native app that generates children’s stories based on prompts and age ranges, using Hugging Face's powerful AI models. The app allows users to enter a prompt, select an age range, and then see a custom story along with a cartoonish image summarizing the story.

Features

1. Interactive Story Generation: User input guides the AI to create engaging children’s stories.
2. Summarization and Visualization: The story is summarized and displayed alongside an AI-generated image.
3. Smooth UI Animation: Animations adapt the UI for keyboard input.
4. Navigation and Styling: Using Expo Router for easy navigation and custom styles for an attractive UI.

Let’s break down each part!

---

Step 1: Setting Up React Native and Hugging Face API

Start by creating a new React Native project with Expo:

npx create-expo-app@latest KidsStoryApp
cd KidsStoryApp

Set up Expo Router in your app for easy navigation, and install any additional dependencies you may need, like icons or animations.

Step 2: Creating the Story Generator Home Screen

In the Home.js file, we set up a screen where users can select an age range, enter a story prompt, and press a button to generate a story.

Home.js Code

import React, { useState } from "react";
import {
  View,
  Text,
  TouchableOpacity,
  StyleSheet,
  TextInput,
  Animated,
  ActivityIndicator,
} from "react-native";
import useKeyboardOffsetHeight from "../hooks/useKeyboardOffsetHeight";
import { HUGGING_FACE_KEY } from "../env";
import { useRouter } from "expo-router";

const Home = () => {
  const ageRanges = ["0-3", "4-6", "7-9"];

  const [selectedAgeRange, setSelectedAgeRange] = useState("0-3");
  const [textInput, setTextInput] = useState("");
  const [isLoading, setIsLoading] = useState(false);
  const keyboardOffsetHeight = useKeyboardOffsetHeight();
  const router = useRouter();

  const handleAgeRangeSelect = (r) => setSelectedAgeRange(r);

  const handleShowResult = () => {
    if (textInput.length > 5) {
      fetchStory();
    } else {
      alert("Describe more...");
    }
  };

  async function fetchStory() {
    setIsLoading(true); // Start loading
    try {
      let message = `Write a simple story for kids about ${textInput} ${
        selectedAgeRange ? "for age group " + selectedAgeRange : ""
      }, in plain words. Only provide the story content without any headings, titles, or extra information.`;

      // First request to get the story
      const response = await fetch(
        "https://api-inference.huggingface.co/models/meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct/v1/chat/completions",
        {
          method: "POST",
          headers: {
            Authorization: `Bearer ${HUGGING_FACE_KEY}`,
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
          },
          body: JSON.stringify({
            model: "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct",
            messages: [
              {
                role: "user",
                content: message,
              },
            ],
            max_tokens: 500,
          }),
        }
      );

      if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error("Failed to fetch story");
      }

      const data = await response.json();
      const storyContent = data.choices[0].message.content;
      console.log("Generated Story:", message, storyContent);

      // Second request to summarize the story
      const summaryResponse = await fetch(
        "https://api-inference.huggingface.co/models/meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct/v1/chat/completions",
        {
          method: "POST",
          headers: {
            Authorization: `Bearer ${HUGGING_FACE_KEY}`,
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
          },
          body: JSON.stringify({
            model: "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct",
            messages: [
              {
                role: "user",
                content: `Summarize this story in a line: "${storyContent}"`,
              },
            ],
            max_tokens: 30,
          }),
        }
      );

      if (!summaryResponse.ok) {
        throw new Error("Failed to fetch summary");
      }

      const summaryData = await summaryResponse.json();
      const summaryContent = summaryData.choices[0].message.content;
      if (summaryContent) {
        router.push({
          pathname: "/detail",
          params: { story: storyContent, summary: summaryContent },
        });
      }

      console.log("Story Summary:", summaryContent);
      setTextInput(""); // Clear input after successful fetch
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("Error fetching story or summary:", error);
      alert("Error fetching story or summary. Please try again later.");
    } finally {
      setIsLoading(false); // End loading
    }
  }

  return (
    <Animated.ScrollView
      bounces={false}
      keyboardShouldPersistTaps="handled"
      keyboardDismissMode="on-drag"
      contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
    >
      <Text style={styles.header}>Select Age Range</Text>

      <View style={styles.checkboxContainer}>
        {ageRanges.map((range, index) => (
          <TouchableOpacity
            key={index}
            style={[
              styles.checkbox,
              selectedAgeRange === range && styles.selectedCheckbox,
            ]}
            onPress={() => handleAgeRangeSelect(range)}
          >
            <Text style={styles.checkboxLabel}>{range}</Text>
          </TouchableOpacity>
        ))}
      </View>

      <TextInput
        style={styles.textInput}
        placeholder="Make a story..."
        placeholderTextColor="#888"
        value={textInput}
        onChangeText={setTextInput}
        multiline
      />

      {!keyboardOffsetHeight && (
        <TouchableOpacity
          style={styles.showButton}
          onPress={handleShowResult}
          disabled={isLoading} // Disable button while loading
        >
          {isLoading ? (
            <ActivityIndicator color="#fff" />
          ) : (
            <Text style={styles.showButtonText}>Show</Text>
          )}
        </TouchableOpacity>
      )}
    </Animated.ScrollView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    padding: 20,
    alignItems: "center",
    backgroundColor: "#1c1c1c",
  },
  header: {
    fontSize: 20,
    fontWeight: "bold",
    color: "#fff",
    marginVertical: 10,
  },
  checkboxContainer: {
    flexDirection: "row",
    flexWrap: "wrap",
    justifyContent: "center",
    marginBottom: 20,
  },
  checkbox: {
    width: 60,
    height: 60,
    borderRadius: 30,
    backgroundColor: "#333",
    alignItems: "center",
    justifyContent: "center",
    margin: 10,
  },
  selectedCheckbox: {
    backgroundColor: "#1fb28a",
  },
  checkboxLabel: {
    color: "#fff",
    fontSize: 14,
    fontWeight: "bold",
  },
  textInput: {
    width: "100%",
    height: 150,
    backgroundColor: "#333",
    color: "#fff",
    borderRadius: 8,
    padding: 10,
    marginVertical: 20,
    fontSize: 16,
  },
  showButton: {
    backgroundColor: "#1fb28a",
    borderRadius: 8,
    paddingVertical: 10,
    paddingHorizontal: 20,
    marginTop: 10,
  },
  showButtonText: {
    color: "#fff",
    fontSize: 16,
    fontWeight: "bold",
  },
});

export default Home;

Key Components of Home.js

• Text Input and Age Selector: Allows the user to select an age range and enter a story prompt.
• Fetch Story: fetchStory interacts with the Hugging Face API to generate and summarize a story based on the input.
• Navigation: If a story and summary are successfully fetched, the app navigates to the Detail screen to display the results.

---

Step 3: Displaying Story and Image on the Detail Screen

The Detail screen retrieves the generated story, summarizes it, and displays an AI-generated cartoon image related to the story.

Detail.js Code

import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import { StyleSheet, View, Text, TouchableOpacity, ActivityIndicator, Image, ScrollView } from "react-native";
import { useLocalSearchParams, useRouter } from "expo-router";
import { HUGGING_FACE_KEY } from "../env";
import Ionicons from "@expo/vector-icons/Ionicons";

const Detail = () => {
  const params = useLocalSearchParams();
  const { story, summary } = params;
  const [imageUri, setImageUri] = useState(null);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
  const router = useRouter();

  useEffect(() => {
    const fetchImage = async () => {
      setLoading(true);
      try {
        const response = await fetch("https://api-inference.huggingface.co/models/stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0", {
          method: "POST",
          headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${HUGGING_FACE_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
          body: JSON.stringify

({ inputs: `Cartoonish ${summary}`, target_size: { width: 300, height: 300 } }),
        });

        if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);

        const blob = await response.blob();
        const base64Data = await blobToBase64(blob);
        setImageUri(`data:image/jpeg;base64,${base64Data}`);
      } catch (error) {
        console.error("Error fetching image:", error);
      } finally {
        setLoading(false);
      }
    };

    fetchImage();
  }, []);

  const blobToBase64 = (blob) => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      const reader = new FileReader();
      reader.onloadend = () => resolve(reader.result.split(",")[1]);
      reader.onerror = reject;
      reader.readAsDataURL(blob);
    });
  };

  return (
    <ScrollView style={styles.container}>
      <TouchableOpacity onPress={() => router.back()}>
        <Ionicons name="arrow-back-circle-sharp" size={50} color="yellow" />
      </TouchableOpacity>
      {loading ? (
        <ActivityIndicator size="large" color="#ffffff" />
      ) : imageUri ? (
        <Image source={{ uri: imageUri }} style={styles.image} />
      ) : (
        <Text style={styles.text}>No image generated yet.</Text>
      )}
      <Text style={styles.header}>{story}</Text>
    </ScrollView>
  );
};

export default Detail;

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: { flex: 1, padding: 16, backgroundColor: "#1c1c1c" },
  header: { fontSize: 24, color: "#ffffff", marginVertical: 16 },
  text: { color: "#ffffff" },
  image: { width: 300, height: 300, marginTop: 20, borderRadius: 10, alignSelf: "center" },
});

Wrapping Up

This app is a great way to combine user input with AI models to create a dynamic storytelling experience. By using React Native, Hugging Face API, and Expo Router, we’ve created a simple yet powerful storytelling app that can entertain kids with custom-made stories and illustrations.