Free Online Books
There are thousands, even millions of free online books for you to read with your children.
But Read WITH Your Children
With.
Your children want to be with you. They want your attention. They want to feel loved, noticed, and encouraged.
That is the foundational idea of ReadingWithKids.org. If you play basketball with your children, they will probably love basketball. If you play piano with them, ditto. If you garden with them, cook with them, walk with them, tell jokes with them, it is all the same. Anything you do with your children, your children will probably grow to love, because they love you.
So: With.
For all of the following resources, remember that with is the most important thing.
Scratch the Screens
Never let a machine or device raise your child; machines cannot give your child love. And because a machine does all of the imagining for your children, they will not expand their own imaginations.
If you do not feel like reading, see the read-aloud and audiobook resources below. But when possible, be there. Be with your child. Then they will associate stories with your love, books with your love, and reading…
…with your love.
Free Books?
Books can be priceless; but they can also be free. A library card, free in most of the United States, can give your family access not only to traditional books, but also to eBooks, audiobooks, comics, magazines, and other materials you can use on your phone, tablet, or computer.
Many libraries also participate in Interlibrary Loan, which can help you borrow books from libraries beyond your local branch.
And even without leaving home, you can find many free books and stories online through the resources below.
Free Online Books for Children, and Story Libraries
- Unite for Literacy — Free digital picture books, many with audio narration in multiple languages. Excellent for young children, new readers, multilingual families, and parents who want simple picture books to discuss together.
- StoryWeaver — A multilingual digital story platform from Pratham Books. It offers thousands of children’s stories that can be read, downloaded, translated, or adapted under open licenses.
- International Children’s Digital Library — A free collection of children’s books from around the world. A good place to help children see that stories belong to every culture.
- Oxford Owl Free eBook Library — Free eBooks for children, especially ages 3–11. Families may need to register for a free account.
- StoryPlace — A children’s digital library from Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, with preschool stories, activities, videos, and take-home ideas. Good for younger children and caregivers.
- Storynory — Free audio stories for children, including fairy tales, myths, poems, classics, and original stories. Good for listening together in the car, at bedtime, or during quiet time.
- TumbleBooks — Animated, talking picture books and read-along books. Many families can access TumbleBooks free through their public library, so check your local library website.
Other Free Online Books, eBooks, and Audiobooks
- Project Gutenberg — A huge library of free public-domain eBooks, especially classics. Good for older children, teens, parents, teachers, and families who want to build a home reading habit around classic literature.
- Open Library — A large online catalog and digital lending project from the Internet Archive (below). Families can search, read, borrow, and discover books online.
- Internet Archive — A nonprofit digital library with free access to public-domain texts, older books, audio, video, and other cultural materials. Best for older readers, researchers, and families looking for older or unusual books.
- Google Books — A useful search tool for finding books, previews, and many older public-domain texts. Look for books marked “Full view” or available as free downloads.
- Standard Ebooks — Carefully formatted public-domain eBooks, often more polished and readable than raw scans. A good source for classics once children and teens are ready for longer works.
- ManyBooks — Free and discounted eBooks in many genres, including public-domain classics and newer independent titles. Parents should preview selections for age appropriateness.
- Smashwords — A large independent eBook marketplace with many free and low-cost titles. Best used by adults or older teens, with parent guidance for younger readers.
- BookBub — Helps readers find free or discounted eBooks. Useful for parents building their own reading habit or finding inexpensive books for older children.
- Feedbooks — Offers public-domain and commercial eBooks. Good for finding classics and browsing by category.
- Planet eBook — Free classic literature in clean PDF format. Best for teens and adults.
- Read Print — Free online books, poems, stories, and plays, especially classic works. Useful for older students and family reading projects.
- HathiTrust Digital Library — A large research-oriented digital library with many public-domain books. Best for older students, parents, teachers, and researchers.
- Open Textbook Library — Free open textbooks, mostly for high school, college, and adult learners. Not a children’s read-aloud site, but excellent for lifelong learning.
- Wikibooks — Free open-content textbooks and instructional books. Useful for older students and curious families exploring science, technology, language, and other subjects.
- Baen Free Library — Free science fiction and fantasy eBooks from Baen. Best for teens and adults; parents should preview selections.
- GetFreeEbooks — A directory of free eBooks from around the web. Because it links to many sources, parents should preview before sharing with children.
- Freebooksy — Daily listings of free eBooks. Useful for adults and older teens, with parent review for younger readers.
- Loyal Books — Free public-domain eBooks and audiobooks. Good for classics, family listening, and older children.
- Bookboon — Free and subscription-based textbooks and professional learning materials. Best for older students and adults.
- PDF Books World — Public-domain books formatted as PDFs. Useful for classics, though parents should preview for reading level and suitability.
Library Apps
- Libby — The library app by OverDrive. With a participating library card, families can borrow free eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines from their local library.
- Hoopla — A digital library service offered by many public libraries. Depending on your library, you may be able to borrow eBooks, audiobooks, comics, movies, music, and more.
- CloudLibrary: A digital platform for browsing and borrowing ebooks and audiobooks from participating local libraries.
- Boundless: A premium app for digital library content.
- BorrowBox: An app that allows for borrowing ebooks and audiobooks, often used by public libraries in certain regions.
Read-Aloud Videos and “Somebody Else Reads” Resources
Sometimes parents are tired. Sometimes grandparents live far away. Sometimes a child just wants another voice. These resources can help. But remember: when possible, watch or listen with your child. Ask questions. Laugh together. Point at pictures. Make it a shared moment.
- Storyline Online — Professional actors read children’s books aloud in videos from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. A strong resource for families, teachers, and children who enjoy hearing expressive readers.
- KidTime StoryTime — A large YouTube read-aloud channel with lively, theatrical readings and puppets. Best used with an adult nearby, especially for younger children.
- Ryan & Craig — Funny read-aloud videos of picture books. Good for children who respond to humor and performance.
- Epic! — A large digital reading platform for children with eBooks, audiobooks, and “read-to-me” options. Some access may require a school, library, or paid family plan.
- LibriVox — Free public-domain audiobooks read by volunteers. Useful for car rides, bedtime listening, or for parents who want to share stories even when they are too tired to read aloud themselves.
Learning to Read: Phonics, Practice, and Early Literacy
- Starfall — Interactive reading, phonics, math, songs, and games for young children. Especially helpful for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary readers.
- Reading Rockets — A national public media literacy project with free research-based resources for parents, teachers, and caregivers. Especially useful when a child is struggling to read.
- A Child Becomes a Reader: Birth to Preschool — A practical Reading Rockets guide for families with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.
- Reading Aloud Tips from Reading Rockets — Short parent-friendly tips, including bilingual resources, for making read-aloud time more useful and joyful.
Don’t Feel Like Reading?
What if you are tired? What if you do not feel well? What if you do not think you can read another thing?
We have two recommendations.
First: Just Talk About the Book
Sit there. Flip the pages. Talk about what you see.
If your child is old enough, ask what they see. Ask what they think is happening. Encourage them to make up their own story from the pictures.
Point to a dog. Ask where it is going.
Point to the moon. Ask if it looks lonely.
Point to a child in the picture. Ask how that child feels.
You do not have to “perform.” You do not have to read every word. You do not have to do it perfectly.
You just have to be with your child.
Second: Let Someone Else Read — But Stay With Them
Use audiobooks, read-aloud videos, library apps, or online story sites when you need help. But when you can, stay close. Laugh with them. Ask questions. Repeat favorite lines. Let the story become part of your relationship.
The goal is not simply that your child hears words.
The goal is that your child feels:
Books mean love. Stories mean closeness. Reading means being with someone who cares.
A Simple Family Habit
Try this tonight:
- Choose one book.
- Sit together for ten minutes.
- Read, talk, point, laugh, or make up the story from the pictures.
- Do it again tomorrow.
Ten minutes a night can become a childhood of stories.