Free Online Books for Children
Children's Storybooks Online
A free collection of public domain and original stories; the collection covers early literacy, older children, and young adult. The website is ad-supported in order to remain free to all users. No registration required.
International Children's Digital Library
Language barriers have never been more pronounced. Whether in an urban area of a modern country (e.g. the Chicago Public School system has 73 different languages represented in its student population) or the rural areas of a less developed country (e.g. Mongolia, where the ICDL has its first "branch" and where rural schools do not yet support a culture of reading for pleasure), differences in language are making it harder and harder for educational initiatives to bring about success. *This program is no longer actively maintained but many of the materials are still available for use.*
Library of Congress: Kids Reading Room
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress invites people of all ages to discover the fascinating people, places, and events that await you whenever you read. Read.gov presents a sampling of suggested books that will spark the imagination and transport readers to new and exciting places.
OxfordOwl
Oxford Owl is an award-winning website from Oxford University Press, created to support children’s learning both at home and at school. Oxford Owl for Home is written especially for parents to help you be as well-informed as you can be, making sure you’re best equipped to help your child have the smoothest journey through school possible. From learning to read to understanding a tricky bit of maths, from the first day at school to making sense of exams, *This is a free service, but registration is required.*
Read Conmigo
Read Conmigo was created out of the discovery that many Latino parents, grandparents, and caregivers who do not read fluently yet in English are hesitant to read to their children at home in Spanish. Read Conmigo books feature creative, fresh and engaging stories in both English and Spanish so that Latino parents and children can read aloud together. Parents of children, from babies to 5th graders can subscribe to receive free books available online and on mobile devices. Read Conmigo has distributed over 1 million books to families, schools, and libraries nationwide. The program is also utilized by more than 11,000 educators. The campaign promotes the distinct educational, social, and financial benefits of bilingualism and provides parents with free tools and resources to help them create a lifelong love of reading. *This is a free service, but registration is required.*
Storyline Online
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more. Storyline Online receives over 100 million views annually from children all over the world. Storyline Online is available 24 hours a day for children, parents, caregivers, and educators worldwide. Each book includes a supplemental curriculum developed by a credentialed elementary educator, aiming to strengthen comprehension and verbal and written skills for English-language learners. Storyline Online is a program of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. The Foundation is a nonprofit organization that relies entirely on gifts, grants, and donations to fund Storyline Online and produce all of its videos.
Free Online Books for Adults and Family
Over the years, Learn Out Loud had curated a Catalog of over 50,000 of the best audiobooks, podcasts, free downloads, and videos individuals can learn from.
Today, students with learning differences have increased rates of depression, "at-risk" behaviors, a higher likelihood of dropping out, and, ultimately, higher poverty rates. Without the right support, many of these students will needlessly struggle in school and will be poorly positioned for future success. Learning Ally seeks to break this cycle of failure. We enable schools to support their struggling readers and build a strong foundation for independent, engaged learners who are empowered to achieve socially, emotionally, and academically, regardless of their learning difference.
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net for free. Because the books LibriVox records are in the public domain, readers and listeners should be aware that many of them are very old, and may contain language or express notions that are antiquated at best, offending at worst.
Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and the word count is given for each of the passages.
Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given them great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It's all free.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, with a focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
Free or Low-Cost Print Books for Families
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BooksfreeSwap was launched in early 2010 as a simpler way to swap books and audiobooks online. Created by Booksfree.com, the leading online paperback, and audiobook rental service, Books Free Swap was developed to be a complementary service to its popular online rental service. Booksfree.com revolutionized the way people get paperback and audiobooks online, saving members hundreds, and even thousands of dollars a year. In addition to the savings, Booksfree.com offers members the convenience of free home delivery and the largest selection of current and past titles. *This item is considered low-cost as you must only pay postage.*
BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books. BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want. Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish. There is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others. *This item is considered low-cost as you must only pay postage.*
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.
Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization that inspires a love of reading, builds community, and sparks creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges around the world.
Maryland Book BankFor over 20 years, we have curated a volunteer-organized collection of donated books to distribute to our community. Children under 13 do not require membership. Those over 13 require a low-cost membership. For more information, click here: https://www.mdbookbank.org/visit