As teachers, we are always faced with the problem of trying to find materials without having to spend a lot of money. E-books are a great way to share stories without having to spend any money. These books could be printed and used for a class activity. Their are many sites online that feature these books to download or read online. Some specialize in children's books while others feature classics. Many of the sites are free, some require a free registration, and others would like you to pay a fee. My advice is to keep looking if you find what charges a fee. There are many out there that can be found without paying anything.
- Free-Books.org
- This site has a variety of books for children and adults. Their are sections dedicated to children's stories that we all remember hearing as a child along with sections dedicated to the older readers. Literature and History are some of the other specialties of this site.
- Bartleby.com
- This site has a couple different sections of e-books. One section is through Amazon.com which charges $1 to read each book. The other section is free and run by Bartleby.com. In the free section their are classics works from Aeschylus, Vergil, and many other well known authors. Many of these books are classic literature that are still referred to in school.
- Bedtime Story
- This site contains many of the traditional bedtime stories that are told to children when they are younger along with many other children stories. The difference is that this site also includes pictures with the story. As you scroll down the page the stories are grouped into different categories. Many of the categories are about kids and there creatures such as pets, dragons, and monsters.
- ClassicBookshelf.com
- This site allows readers to read the book online. They are able to search by author or title for a specific selection. After finding the book that you would like to read you are able to read it in your web browser by selecting a chapter to start on or by opening it in a program that they provide. When you open it in their program you are able to change the size, font, and color of the text to make it suitable to your eyes. After closing the window that the book has opened in, you are able to have them email a bookmark to you so you can come back and read and know exactly where you left off.
- Memoware.com
- I found this site interesting because it not only had leisurely reading but it also had reference books. I also found it slightly unusual that these books were meant to be put on a handheld device such as a Palm device. This site would be a great resource for someone who travels and always has their handheld device with them and likes to read.
- Literature.org
- This site as a limited number of e-books. There are a variety of authors but many of them only have a couple books listed. I also didn't find a way to download the books. This would mean that you would have to read them online or print them yourself. Even though I don't think that this site is as useful as it could be, there may be a title on here that you are looking for.
- Page by Page
- This site has hundreds of free e-books. The site is set up so that you would be able to print them without having to adjust your print settings much. This would be a great place to find short stories to print and use for a class project.
- Franklin.com
- This site allows you to both preview and download the books. I found that I wasn't able to find common books like on the other sites, but I found books that were a little more rare. Some of these books are older and are would be used at the college level.
- Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
- This site contains many e-books. I found that the easiest way to read them on this site is online even though there is a way to download them.
- Bibliomania.com
- At Bibliomania you need to know the type, title, or author of a book that you are looking for. I was unable to find a way to just browse the titles. This site does contain a variety of subjects to look in.
- Childhood Reading
- Childhood Reading contains many children's books. Along with reading the book online, there area couple pictures per book that can be seen.
- Project Gutenberg
- I found that this was the easiest site to search for a story or to just browse the titles. With this site it is easy to read the books online or download them to save to your computer.
- Children's Storybooks Online
- Children's Storybooks offer a way to present an online book to the whole class. If a teacher had the ability to hook a computer up to a TV or a projector, the class could read the book and see the pictures online. These books are in the same format that regular children's books are, big words with pictures.
- Young People's Zone
- Classic books that youth would like to read can be found here. This site contains books for elementary age students to high school students, depending on reading level. There are fairy tales, short novels, and other classic stories.
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Northern Michigan University
Latest update to this document: 21 October 2003
E-mail the creator of this page at:ateraves@nmu.edu