Online Summer Reading

The end of the year at a school is usually super busy. The ES library has been a hive of activity as well, and it's just kicking up into high gear as we race to collect all the library materials in time for the last day of school. Our school policy is to withhold report cards for students with overdue materials, and I always try my hardest to make sure that no child gets blocked. So far, in my eight years as a librarian, I haven't been able to accomplish that, but...there's still this year!

One of the things we do during the last weeks of school is promote our online reading materials. While students are allowed, and encouraged, to check out books for summer reading, we also know that in this day of ubiquitous Internet, online options are welcome, especially for our expat community. Summer means long travel times and ebooks pack light.

Here are a few options for online children's reading.

Online reading on the Visual Tab

The Visual Tab houses a treasure house of learning resources during the school year, and is available year round to students wherever there is an Internet connection. We have a page of online reading for children with links to our Overdrive collection (more on that later) and reading websites. 

The Current Events for Kids page has a collection of online news sites for children, from different countries and in different languages. As of the time of typing, I don't have a website for children in Arabic. If you know of one, please do let me know in the comments.

The Children's Online Books page has links to several websites offering online children's books, including our Overdrive collection.

The International Children's Digital Library has books in many different languages. Many of the books can be read for free. A free account allows users to upload books of their own.

Starfall is a literacy website for younger students. Many of our second and third graders welcomed it as a long lost friend, and spent a lot of the time in the lesson playing its educational games.

Storyline Online is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. It features famous US TV actors reading favorite picture books. This is a great mentor site for reading with expression.

Myths and Legends is a site that offers myths, legends and folktales from different countries. Most of the countries are Anglo-Saxon, with a sprinkling of stories from other cultures. The site also allows users to submit their own stories.

Lit2Go is a collection of stories, novels and poetry in mp3 format. It is sponsored by the University of South Florida. Download the mp3 and play through iTunes or an mp3 player app.

StoryNory offers stories in podcast episodes. Each episode can be downloaded individually or subscribed to through a podcast app.

YASync is a site that offers 2 free downloadable audiobooks per week of the summer. These are suitable for older students.

Overdrive eBook Collection

CAC has a large collection of ebooks available through Overdrive. Books can be read online or downloaded to a mobile device app. Instructions for using Overdrive can be found here. 

Although CAC has two separate collections for the elementary school and the middle-high schools, we cannot separate our ebooks separately, so parents are urged to supervise their elementary school students' ebook choices. 

To access the CAC Overdrive collection, patrons must log in with their single sign on username and password. 

A link to Overdrive is available via the Visual Tab's Children's Online Books, or by logging in to the library catalog. 

TumbleBooks

TumbleBooks is another collection of ebooks, featuring animated picture books, ebooks with a read aloud function, graphic novels, audiobooks, non-fiction videos and more. We actually have 2 different collections: the original TumbleBooks, for students up to grade 3 and TumbleBookCloud Junior, for students in grades 3 and above. However, after trying both out this week with grades 3 to 5, we all think that the original TumbleBooks has the better selection of ebooks. 

To access TumbleBooks, you will need to log in to the library catalog using the Quick Login or your single sign on. Scroll all the way down on the homepage and note the username and password for TumbleBooks.

Scholastic BookFlix and TrueFlix

BookFlix and TrueFlix are 2 other ebook collections. 

BookFlix was the original database. It pairs an animated video of a popular and/or award winning book with an ebook. It offers comprehension games, short author bios, and links to related websites. 

TrueFlix is for older students and links to social studies curriculum. It pairs a short documentary with an ebook. 

To access these, log in with the Quick Login or your single sign on to the library catalog, and scroll down to their links. Note the username and password listed for each. 

And there's more!

If you or your child is more interested in non-fiction material, explore the databases we provide. Find links and login credentials on the library catalog's homepage. (Access the homepage by logging in with the Quick Login or your CAC single sign on.)

Questions? Stop by the ES library for a demonstration. 

Do you have any favorite online reading sites for children that are not featured here? Please share them with us in the comments.