At Milner
While the children and young adult e-books available through Milner are quite limited, you can find those that are available using a genre-focused advanced search. These searches are linked below. All of the books included allow an unlimited number of people to be reading the same e-book at the same time. For the resources returned, explore the information provided, as some of the books are appropriate for children while others for more mature high school students.
- TMCdewey electronic books
- For children and young adult informational books, graphic novels, and fairytales/folklore.
- TMCfiction electronic books
- For elementary chapter books, middle-grade and young adult fiction.
- TMCEasy electronic books
- For children picture books
Example Milner e-books
Storytime
- KidLit TV Read Out LoudA collection of videos of children's books being read out loud by their author.
- Storyline OnlineA collection of, "videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Kristen Bell, Rita Moreno, Viola Davis, Jaime Camil, Kevin Costner, Lily Tomlin, Sarah Silverman, Betty White, Wanda Sykes and dozens more." [from source]
- MrsP.comClassic children's stories read out loud by Mrs. P.
Your Local Public/School Library
This section of the guide outlines places to look for freely available children's e-books. I recommend checking your local public (or school) library's collection of children's e-books first, because they often have a large collection of some of the best titles. e-books that can be made freely available online are often limited due to copyright restrictions.
- Bloomington Public Library e-books
For those with a Bloomington Library Card. Of their available resources, my recommendation for families and teachers: Tumblebooks and BookFlix. - Normal Public Library e-books
Normal Public Library card required. A list of e-book and audiobook resources provided by the Normal Public Library. - University High School's Digital Book Collection
A collection of University High School's e-books hosted on Overdrive. Only available to those with a UHigh Student ID Number.
Websites - Free Children's e-books
- EpicFree to educators, this website provides access to over 35,000 books and additional resources to K-5 teachers.
- Open Library - Picture BooksFree account required. Borrow digitized versions of classic children's picture books. Check out period is usually one hour.
- BookdashA project based on increasing book ownership for young children, especially in South Africa. e-books are created by professional volunteers, and published for free on the site. Many are available in multiple languages.
- Biblioboard Children's ClassicsOpen access children's classics sorted into four collections: fairy tales, rhymes & fables, picture books, and novels. From the page linked above, select the 'biblioboard open access' button to be redirected to the correct page. SIGN-IN NOT REQUIRED.
- International Children's Digital LibraryA collection of free children's e-books in a wide variety of different languages.
- SurLaLune FairytalesA collection of popular fairy tales with annotations. Browsable alphabetically or by popularity.
- Oxford OwlAn e-book library, in which free e-books are browsable and denoted with an e. An account is required.
- Amazon's Top 100 Free Children's e-booksA constantly updating list of the most-downloaded free children's e-books on Amazon. "Purchase" the free book and read on a compatible device with Kindle.