How To Get Free Books for Kids
Books can be really expensive. Expensive, that is, when you are buying dozens of expensive brand new books per year, to replace the former expensive brand new books which were either methodically ripped to pieces by your toddlers or covered with moldy old yogurt stains and/or spilled coffee. In fact, my library recently informed me that in the past month I have saved over $1,000 by getting my books from the library instead of Barnes and Noble. The library is a great place to get free books because
A. You can get new ones every time you go;
B. They sometimes have a children’s section which also includes expensive puzzles, STEM toys, and trucks which are free to use; and
C. You can return the books before they have time to acquire mold.
Anyway, whether books are being compromised by bookworms bringing their books with them into the dirt, a budding young artist using the pages as their canvas, or a toddler’s super powers destroying a supposedly indestructible board book, it can be helpful to know where to access these precious resources for super cheap. Also, the library is initially free, but they can really slam you with the fines if your dog or baby think it’s a chew toy. Here are ten ways to get free or very cheap books (online and physical).
Library Summer Reading Programs
At the library near us, for the summer reading program they give each child a free book for every five books that they read (in ADDITION to raffle tickets for some STEM toys that my kids are longing for). Between the four oldest we picked up twenty books the other day, including a well-loved Hardy Boys book, the classic If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and a brand new Steve Jenkins pop-up book.
YouTube
Free books online using YouTube videos – when we were doing Singapore Math Curriculum they would always have a list of picture books that could accompany the lesson. It’s kind of inconvenient to try to use the Dewey decimal system to meticulously search for a long list of specific books at a library especially when your littlest is pulling books off the shelf and your five year old is climbing on the librarian’s desk. Then discovered that many of the books were actually already done by some random unknown YouTube teacher who just decided she would make a video of the book. They are usually not the best quality readers but often I just watch it on silent and pause it on each page to read it to my kids. Sir Cumference is a good one.
Little Libraries
Little Libraries are these are those tiny huts placed randomly around town, which could be mistaken for decorative house-shaped mailboxes or gigantic birdhouses. Depending on the neighborhood you usually find some strange cartoonish childrens books, one or two religious/cultish materials, s and a handful of oldie but goodie chapter books like the Boxcar Children, Ramona, Super Fudge, etc.
They usually place them at a conspicuous but difficult to screech to a halt location, such as on the side of a busy road. Also, look for one if you are at a playground. Sometimes it’s hit or miss – you can have some really great classic Newberry’s, or some random throwaway dusty attic relics that no one would ever read. To be honest, I am actually not sure who invented them or what the rules are – do you just take one? One per child? As many as you want? Trade-ins only? Whatever the technicalities, these are a great free resource.
Book Fairs
Book Fairs at libraries and schools are a great place to get books. This summer there was a book fair at an elementary school near us and the kids’ books were only a twenty-five cents and the chapter books were a dollar. They had a wide variety, it was all organized into categories, and I just skimmed through and grabbed every Newberry or well-known classic I could find (that we didn’t already own).
Thrift Stores
An unusual place that many people don’t think of to get books is a thrift store. Most thrift stores have a section where they have children’s books and chapter books available for less than a dollar each. Depending on the management of the thrift store, it can be very well organized or very chaotic, but just sifting through quickly you can usually find at least a few good picks. I have found it to be best for unspecific baby board books and toddler books like Guess How Much I Love You, Going on a Bear Hunt, etc. The downside is you have no way of knowing what books they will have, so if you want a specific book you are better off using an option that uses a search engine.
Project Gutenberg
You have likely heard about Project Gutenberg, but in case you haven’t, it is a website that has thousands of public domain texts that are completely free to use. If there are any books that you or your kids want to read that are from before the 1920’s, you can find them on here. It’s also a good place if you are homeschooling and need to find materials for different projects, that you can reprint and not need to worry about copyright. They are sometimes formatted and sometimes just in plain text.
The Good and The Beautiful Storytime Videos
I stumbled upon this little alcove of book videos, similar to Reading Rainbow reruns. They do a good job of showing the pictures and reading at a good pace. The selection is somewhat limited but the books they choose are usually unique, pleasant, and visually appealing. I suggest manually sifting through because the filter settings are not very reliable.
They also have a reading level assessment and an organized a book list, which is convenient to have for the library. They are a religious homeschool group but the books they use are secular. They say they have chosen the books carefully, and, according to their website, the books have no bad words and no inappropriate/rude behavior made to be funny, “wonderful writing of the highest literary value”; “character building themes such as bravery, hard work, kindness, and respect”.
EDIT: They have removed their story time videos from their website and YouTube channel, but they still have their book list.
Thriftbooks.com
If you are willing to pay a little extra to be able to look up books by their author or title, you can always go on thriftbooks.com. They have a large selection of books, and you can usually choose hardcover or softcover options. They also give options for the condition of the book, so you can specify whether you are looking for one in like-new condition, or would like to pay the bare minimum for a very well loved copy that is still readable. They sometimes have randomly priced items for extremely high prices but you can just ignore that and find the good ones.
Mercari
Another unsuspecting culprit of good used books is Mercari. Usually popular for used high end clothing and gadgets, this hidden gem has some good book sets that people are just looking to get rid of. I have found that you really have to do some digging around to find what you are looking for – sometimes you have to scroll through the different book bundles and get a few that you don’t really need to get the good ones, and sometimes you strike lucky and find a full bundle of great books like a bundle of Newberry books or the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. You can directly message the sellers to see if they are willing to lower their price. The downside is often the shipping cost is higher because of the weight, so look for ones that offer free shipping. Facebook Marketplace has similar results, and you can also see if there’s anyone near you that you can pick up the books from instead of having them shipped.
*Mercari is also a good spot to keep your eyes out for puzzles, baby clothes, and used toys. I also bought my bread machine on there for a great price.
Last but not least, THERE are AUDIOBOOKS
If you are looking for audiobooks, there are a couple of options, and they each have their pros and cons.
First there is the totally free option of using LibriVox or YouTube, where you can find a large number of public domain books that are recorded. The downside is, LibriVox is free because it has only old public domain books and the narrators are usually NOT professional or skilled. Listening to audiobooks on YouTube may give more options but it occupies your phone screen if you are listening on YouTube because if you exit the screen it will stop playing, so if you are driving you can’t be using Maps at the same time, and if you drive through an area without service you have to wait until you are back into service. I had a three hour ride I was making once a week that was almost completely a dead zone, so I ended up using the Audiobooks.com app to be able to download them and listen at any time.
Audiobooks.com (and similarly, Audible) offer a couple free books when you sign up. I did this, and got my free books, but I didn’t cancel in time and so I was charged for future credits. Each month you get 1 credit, which is good for either one audiobook of your choice (which you get to keep) or joining a book club, which includes a bunch of books in a specific genre, like Sci-Fi or Romance, and you can listen to as many as you want until the month is up (you don’t keep any). They do have a huge selection, the narrators are usually very good, and you can immediately get the book you want instead of being on a waitlist like for Libby.
Libby is a free app that has tons of audiobooks that you can check out from your library. You need a library card to log in but it is free, and you will never have overdue book fees because they return automatically after two weeks. You can place a hold on audiobooks that are checked out, and they will put you on the wait list. It can be inconvenient because popular ones like books for high school English class required reading (Catch-22, East of Eden, etc) are usually taken, but if you have the foresight to put books on hold that you know you will want to listen to in the future but don’t need right this second. (All Harry Potter books are several months wait at my library right now, for example.)
