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Digital Parents: Edtech/Library Blog

Resources to Support Parenting in the Digital Age

Online: Audio-e-Video Books

by John Byrne on 2021-04-28T14:48:00+08:00 in General Library | 0 Comments

Finding and having access to online children’s books (audio, video & eBook) for free is not as easy as it seems. One often runs into situations where you are asked to sign-up with credit card information, and this can often make us reluctant to do so. There are also many issues surrounding publishing rights, copyrights and legal implications attached to online use of books.

The curated list below gives you a quick start to exploring some online audio-e-video books you may like to share with your children or enjoy yourself. Take time to browse the collections so you can get a feel for what is on offer.

 

 

 

Storytime: Radio New Zealand (RNZ) has a nice, uncluttered, easily navigable collection of children’s audio books in age categories: Kids, Little Kids & Young Adults.

Great for story time to listen to a variety of beautifully narrated picture books. You can also subscribe to the weekly Best of Storytime podcast. Searching is made easy by Topic, Author and Age. Browsing easy with a ‘Discover’ search for Most Popular, Recently Added and Featured Topics. A focus on Māori stories is also a nice addition.

 

 

Loyal Books' vast collection of audio and eBooks in the public domain. No recent publications, yet there are so many book titles to choose from. You will need to search for ‘good fit’ titles for your child, but there are many titles for parents as well. Able to stream audiobooks or download chapter by chapter. Also offers a variety of eBook download options: Kindle, iBook, ePub, Textfile.

Searching is very easy with browse categories such as: Popular Genres, Genres (Kids, Comedy, Poetry etc), 30+ Languages. Also, a selection of ‘Paid Books’ is available and links you to Amazon for purchase.

 

 

 

Storyline Online is made available by SAG-AFTRA Foundation which supports Performing Arts & Artists. This children’s literacy websitestreams 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.”

Can view through: SchoolTube, YouTube or Vimeo. It does have a general ‘search’ function, but probably best to choose title and scroll  through entire list and see what jumps out at you! Other search categories: Author, Reader, Title & Run Time (starting at 5 minutes...). Titles also have supplementary ‘Activity Guides’ Over 60 titles to choose from. Quality of the video production is excellent, as you would expect from SAG. Illustrations truly come to life.

 

 

Storynory has been giving free audio stories to the world since November 2005. They are a podcast and a website with audio streaming. Each story does have the text so you can follow along, but no illustrations.

Although there is a general ‘search’ field, the categories are not sophisticated at all. Do not let that deter. Easily click through the broad menu headings: Fairytales, Classic Authors, Myths & World, Educational, Poems & Music to view what is available. The World category offers some lovely fairytales and myths from near and far. Able to download the audio file and also subscribe to their Podcast and use their APP as well.

 

 

 


Kids World Fun
A nice little collection of free eBooks (interspersed with ones for purchase). Has many other links to fun and exciting educational learning activities and experiences.

Books download in pdf format very quickly. Each title has thorough summary of the story. There is a delightful two volumes of World Famous Nursery Rhymes which every child would love to explore. The alphabet book: Zoophabet a magically creative way to learn your A to Z!

 

 

 


Free Kids Books: Easy to navigate and read online or download. A nice breakdown of Categories: Alphabet, Bedtime Stories, Dinosaurs, Easy Reader...  A nice one to check out and know it exists!

 

 

Storyweaver is a digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books. Supporting their mission that every child can have access to an endless stream of stories in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. Excellent categories for eBooks online: Lifeskills, SDG Lists, School Stories, Science and Nature. You can refine search by reading level and language as well.

 

 

 

 

Story Box Library is a subscription based educational website we have at WAB for younger students, created for children to view stories by authors and illustrators, being read aloud by fantastic storytellers.
 

If you have any questions, please contact me: jbyrne@wab.edu  


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