The School Library Journal, in June of this year, published an article entitled, Are Ebooks Any Good? Below is part of a paragraph that explains two free sites:
“Storyline Online, sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, has many well-known picture books read by celebrities such as Betty White, James Earl Jones, and even Al Gore. And the International Children’s Digital Library, a nonprofit website created eight years ago by researchers at the University of Maryland at College Park, offers nearly 4,500 free books in 54 languages from more than 200 countries, complete with an iPad-friendly interface and an iPhone app.”
I have done a search for kids and young adult resources that public libraries are currently implementing. From ebooks to audio books, scanimation to language learning, there is a lot to choose from. After listing the sources that can be added to your public library I have included a section of only free resources. Now that people have iPods, eReaders, tablets, and personal computers, this blogs shows you what you can really do to involve your children life with books and learning resources.
Warning: Further research is needed when using the free resources. Though I have search for completely free resources, that may change over time or become limited/restricted.
Previous related blogs:
Loud @ Your Library- Creative Programs
Audio Books- Free & Pay resources.
Paid Items and Resources
I was told of this resource from my mentor, Luis Interiano, who works at West Baton Rouge Public Library.
“TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of TumbleBooks – animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in order to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you.”
“Introducing BookFlix, the new interactive literacy resource that builds a love of reading and learning – online! BookFlix pairs classic fictional video storybooks from Weston Woods with nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding.
Perfect for use in the classroom, school library, and public library, BookFlix is accessible to every child – early readers, reluctant readers, and English Language Learners.”
Perfect for use in the classroom, school library, and public library, BookFlix is accessible to every child – early readers, reluctant readers, and English Language Learners.”
“Libraries and One More Story make a great team. While our online library can never replace the enormous value public and school libraries and their librarians offer to communities, One More Story provides a unique and independent literary experience for children who are not yet fluent readers.
Librarians immediately recognize the quality and diversity of titles in the One More Story library and appreciate the simplicity and purity of the reading experience One More Story offers. Young readers will love the books and the choice to listen to a narrator read aloud, or to mute the soundtrack in the I Can Read It mode and read the book themselves, clicking on unknown words to hear them spoken.”
Librarians immediately recognize the quality and diversity of titles in the One More Story library and appreciate the simplicity and purity of the reading experience One More Story offers. Young readers will love the books and the choice to listen to a narrator read aloud, or to mute the soundtrack in the I Can Read It mode and read the book themselves, clicking on unknown words to hear them spoken.”
“Expand your library with 3,454 stunning nonfiction and fiction books covering all subjects for PK-8.
Engaging online writing and publishing tool inspires students to write.
Use for creative writing, book responses, reports, independent/shared writing, writing workshops, or author share sessions.”
“Enjoy 600+ new and classic Disney books.
Click to hear words pronounced.
See definitions using the built-in dictionary.
Be immersed in Look and Listen stories with voices and sound effects.
Use Story-Builder to create Disney stories.”
“MeeGenius features beautifully illustrated and engaging eBooks with Read-Along Technology, so that budding readers develop word recognition by seeing words while hearing them pronounced.”
“MightyBook helps kids discover the joy of reading with hundreds of animated, read-aloud story books and songs that are as entertaining as they are educational. Sample the books on these pages, and see for yourself.”
Current languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, German, Russian, English, and Hebrew.
“Little Pim is an award-winning foreign language learning series for young children.
Our series makes language learning easy, fun andeffective.
Little Pim features our unique Entertainment Immersion Method™, which combines animation and real kids to teach simple words and phrases for everyday activities.
Little Pim is available in 10 different languages, and includes videos, apps, music, books, flash cardsand more.”
How It Works- “Created by Rufus Butler Seder, an inventor, artist, and filmmaker fascinated by antique optical toys, Scanimation is a state-of-the-art six-phase animation process that combines the “persistence of vision” principle with a striped acetate overlay to give the illusion of movement. It harkens back to the old magical days of the kinetoscope, and the effect is astonishing, like a Muybridge photo series springing into action—or, in terms kids can relate to, like a video without a screen.”
Video of Rufus Butler Seder explaining Scanimation and how he came up with the idea (only a minute and a half long).
School Library Journal article, ‘Scanimation’ Makes its Debut in Picture Books.
“Star Wars fans young and old will love this book. Watch in amazement as the most memorable scenes from the saga come to life before your eyes. See Obi-Wan battle Darth Maul, the Millennium Falcon zooming away from the exploding Death Star, Luke riding his Tauntaun, Yoda twirling his lightsaber, and more - 12 iconic scenes in all. It's movie magic without any electricity or wires or even internet. (Gasp!)”
Free Book Collections
“There are original stories with color illustrations for young children as well as older children and young adults. Children's Storybooks Online seeks to combine education and entertainment to amuse and engage children's imaginations. There are riddles, mazes, coloring book pages and a page with children's links that have won Children's Storybooks Online Award for excellence.”
So that every child, regardless of what language they know, can have a book to read.
“The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community.” Full Book List (English)
“by researchers at the University of Maryland at College Park, offers nearly 4,500 free books in 54 languages from more than 200 countries, complete with an iPad-friendly interface and an iPhone app.” (Are Ebooks Any Good?)
Sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, popular books are matched with well-known celebrities for an online story time.
Free Children's Books Online from Gizmo’s Freewear (techsupportalert.com).
“This is a listing of sites that legally offer free books, for reading and listening (audio), for children. This page is geared towards younger children. I recently added a page of site listings for Free Teen and Young Adult Books Online for older children.
All of these sites listed have content that is legal for them to distribute. If you find that any site listed is offering content that can not be legally transferred, please let me know in the comments below.”
446 Places for Free Books Online from Gizmo’s Freewear (techsupportalert.com).
“These listings may be searched in the following methods:
Alphabetical Listing- A listing of the site names in alphabetical order
Listing by Genre - Links to pages here for different book genres (17)
Online Local Libraries - These sites have links to local libraries which have much content for members.”
Libraries: “On the advice of anonymous poster that most public library systems offer free ebooks, audiobooks, and music downloads to their customers for free, I did some checking and found that there are a large amount of offerings available through online libraries. It appears most, if not all, require a local library card. These are sites that have links to local library sites.
LibWeb is a good search source for local libraries online. A good selection of US and worldwide locations.
Public Libraries very good for US, looked not as thorough as LibWeb on worldwide.
Internet Public Library also has some links, but I found the above two to be superior set ups.”
“Free Kids Books is a growing library of unique children’s books and literary resources available for download in a user friendly pdf format.
We aim to provide easy access to great free children’s books and resources, for the enjoyment of reading and writing, and to promote improved literacy standards, and thus improved lives.”
Books are separated in to categories for toddlers, children, and young adults, we felt this easiest since reading levels vary significantly between countries, especially those who English is not a home language. Toddlers books contain very few words, children’s books are picture books of short length, and books for young adults are chapter books with an occasional picture.”
Currently a list of 136 free audio books available to download and enjoy. This is linked to the children’s books but there are 1,000 or more books available.
Between the Lions: Librarians
“Stories and story telling are central to Between the Lions. Here are activities to encourage a love of books and reading in young patrons.”
Click the link above to learn more.
“Children and their parents have for years enjoyed attending storytimes, checking out books and participating in a number of other educational, entertaining and participatory programs at the various locations of The Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg County. StoryPlace, an interactive web site, came about to provide children with the virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the same types of activities the library offers. In the summer of 1999, a team of Children's Librarians and Specialists got together with in-house web developers to begin development on this exciting site. In the Spring of 2000, StoryPlace premiered with its first section, the Pre-School Library, completed. “
Free Audio Books
Free Audio Books from Gizmo’s Freeware (techsupportalert.com).
By Genre, for everyone, not just children.
“All audio books on BooksShouldBeFree.com are in the public domain. This means that no one holds a copyright on these books and therefore anyone including BooksShouldBeFree.com is free to distribute them. Enjoy these free audio books and use the share button on BooksShouldBeFree.com to tell your friends about all these great public domain audio books.”
“Online Audio Stories is the sister site of Tales of Time.
www.talesoftime.co.uk produces great quality audio stories and each story is layered in hundreds of sound effects and accompanying music for a better and more enhanced audio experience.”
“Light Up Your Brain is about inspiration, creativity, and the fun of being a kid. I’ve assembled some great audio stories, games and links to outside resources.”
“I do want to remind you that, if you click on links within the games themselves, you may be taken to sites that are not appropriate for young children. So, both parents and kids, please be aware of that. We can only control what’s on our own site.” (http://lightupyourbrain.com/)
“Hi, I’m Kayray and I love to read out loud. In this podcast, I’ll read to you from some of my very favorite kids’ books. I’d rather read than edit, so I don’t edit my recordings; you get to hear the mistakes and everything (there aren’t usually very many). Just pretend I’m right there reading you a bedtime story!”
“Kids.LearnOutLoud.com is your audio and video learning resource for Kids & Teens.
Browse thousands of Educational Audio Books, MP3 Downloads, and Podcasts for Kids!”
Browse thousands of Educational Audio Books, MP3 Downloads, and Podcasts for Kids!”
“We have over 200 audio stories in MP3 format for you to download and enjoy with your family and friends.
Why not try our Reading Books? Or if you enjoy Colouring, choose from the Colouring Books section.”
Why not try our Reading Books? Or if you enjoy Colouring, choose from the Colouring Books section.”
Free on iTunes, 23 classic stories for K-12 and appropriate for all children.
Good site, but fyi: .ws is for Western Samoa, the .com is not the same website.
