Education Research Guide:Online Books for Children and YA

The Rosetta Project: possibly the largest collection of antique children’s books online. This is the website you want if it is a really old story.

Check their ebook shelves for books you can download free of charge, or find some children’s titles on the books tagged as “free online.”

The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) is a nonprofit organization with the mission to “promote tolerance and a respect for diverse cultures by providing access to the best of children’s literature from around the world.” This is a great choice to allow you and your children to read diversely, and includes more than 4,000 titles from authors around the world, in more than 50 languages. The books can be read anywhere you have access to an Internet connection, in your browser.

The Library of Congress provides a number of classic children’s books free online, without requiring a library card. With full page scans, this service allows you to get the full feeling of reading an antique book, from the retro font choices to the original illustrations.

Open Library is a part of the non-profit Internet Archive, and as such is continually updating its collection of links to free books online—including lots for children! They currently offer access to over 20,000 free titles for children, including newer titles and classics.

Oxford Owl is an award-winning website from Oxford University Press, created to support children’s learning both at home and at school. After registering (which is free), you gain free access to many of Oxford’s ebooks for free, along with other guides and games to help children develop their reading skills.

Ease of use, appealing layout, and you can search by categories.

The Barnes & Noble free ebooks Teen category includes over 1500 titles that can be easily sorted by genre.

Free YA books from publisher Simon & Schuster.

This collection features titles from largely independently published and/or lesser-known contemporary authors. The Shorts – Young Authors section is worth a browse too.

Westin Woods creates high quality book read alouds with animation.

The children’s literacy website Storyline Online is run by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. This site streams 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. Each book includes supplemental curriculum developed by a credentialed elementary educator, aiming to strengthen comprehension and verbal and written skills for English-language learners.

Astronauts on the Space Station read stories and conduct science experiments for the children of Earth.