Best Reading Websites for Kids

Free resources are always a teacher’s dream, but when it comes to free sites to use during reading instruction the choices can be few and far between.  Whether you are looking for a site to use during the Daily 5’s “Listen to Reading” time or want to provide students with a fun early finisher activity, the sites below are ideal.

Designed for elementary-age students, these reading sites are both free and kid-friendly. In our list of reading websites for kids, you will find educational resources that will help your children practice their reading and learn new words.

Here is the list of the best reading websites for kids to improve their language fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

1. Storyline Online

Storyline Online is an interactive and free reading website for students. Storyline Online succeeds in bringing books to life with dynamic readings and fun animations.

All picture books are narrated by prominent American actors and the videos feature animation of some of the pictures which aids the storytelling process. Additionally, each book is provided with an online supplementary learning material booklet pdf file, made for classroom activities.

Storyline Online is a basic but effective website in promoting the love of reading to young children through online story time videos, improved by audio and visual elements.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

2. Free Children’s Stories

FreeChildrenStories.com features a variety of free, easily accessible online books for kids. Upon landing on their homepage, you’ll find straightforward options to filter by age and book style.

This website is committed to providing free E-books and audio stories for kids. When they’re practicing those pesky phonemes, audio stories are especially helpful for young ears to hear. You’ll find tales for kids ages 3-10, as well as middle school novels and rhyming stories.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

3. Starfall

Starfall is a free reading website for kids to improve their alphabet phonic, recognition, and spelling. Starfall can help early readers learn the sounds that the letters make, which is essential to decoding. The app gives kids the opportunity to practice sounding out words by reading songs, rhymes, and short stories.

While some areas of Starfall are part of their premium service, they have many early reader stories available for free. Students can follow along as the story is read to them and can, in some instances, help create their own story.  The website is highly engaging and a favorite of young readers. For more literacy fun, introduce them to some of these Reading Apps for Kids.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

4. International Children’s Digital Library

This is a great choice to allow you and your children to read diversely, and includes more than 4,000 titles from authors around the world, in more than 50 languages.  The free site does not read the books aloud, but students can read them independently during Read to Self or free time.

This is a great site for extension activities when learning about different regions of the world and can be used effectively into the middle school grades. The books can be read anywhere you have access to an Internet connection, in your browser.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 8th Grade (Ages 3 to 13 years old)

5. Epic!

Epic has more than 40,000 books available on its platform for children to read through and improve their literacy skills. If your kid is behind in their reading level, the main thing to do is keep reading.

Via Epic, your son or daughter can enjoy reading classic stories, picture books, and educational magazines. In addition, there are videos to view and ebooks in the Spanish language.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

6. Tumble Books

TumbleBooks is a pay-for-use site that traditionally sells licenses to libraries and schools.  Many public libraries offer free access to Tumble Book Library, a service aimed especially for kids and teens.  Students can follow along as the text is read them to help improve comprehension and fluency.  Choose from picture books to chapter books.

TumbleBooks offers talking, animated picture books for children and interactive e-books designed for middle and high school students. It is an ideal website for children who struggle with reading or who are visual and auditory learners. If your school decides to purchase a school license, there is also access to the Common Core Portal that includes lessons and quizzes to accompany the books.

Grade Level: K to 6th Grade (Ages 5 to 11 years old)

7. ABCya!

ABCYa! is a website that has an array of educational games and activities. ABCYa! also offers game templates so if you want to students to solve a word search puzzle with your own vocabulary or high frequency words you may do so!

Children can listen to short stories read aloud to them as they follow along with the highlighted text.  ABCya! has a variety of educational games in addition to the featured stories. Free resources and materials are available for grades K through 5.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 5th Grade (Ages 4 to 10 years old)

8. Storynory

Storynory features a collection of an original, fairy tale, and classic children’s audio stories.  Students can follow along with the story as it is read to them, as the text is also included on the site. If your child is a little older, approximately 8 to 12 years old, you can show him this website confidently.

There are several entertaining materials for them with a minimum amount of illustrations, unlike the materials for small children. There is also a section of poems and audios of children’s songs with their respective lyrics.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 5th Grade (Ages 4 to 10 years old)

9. Oxford Owl

Oxford Owl for Home provides access to a collection of tablet-friendly eBooks and helpful tips and activities for parents to support children’s learning at home. Oxford Owl is an award-winning website from Oxford University Press, created to support children’s learning both at home and at school.

After registering (which is free), you gain free access to many of Oxford’s ebooks for free, along with other guides and games to help children develop their reading skills.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 5th Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

10. ReadingIQ

ReadingIQ is a reading website for early readers. This website stores more than 7,000 ebooks for children at all reading levels.

Children from two years of age to 12 years old can access all the books they need through this platform. You can even find books from Disney, National Geographic Kids, or Boxcar Children. In addition to chapter books, this program provides guided reading assistance for early readers.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 7th Grade (Ages 2 to 12 years old)

11. National Geographic Young Explorers

National Geographic Young Explorers is a magazine designed specifically for kindergarten and first-grade students.  Children can listen to the magazine being read to them as they follow along with the highlighted text.  It is a great way to bring interesting non-fiction stories into reading center time.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

12. Online Storytime by Barnes and Noble

From The Kissing Hand read by author Audrey Wood to Pinkalicious read by Victoria Kann, Barnes and Noble’s Online Storytime has popular children’s books read out loud. While there are no supplemental materials to accompany the stories, this free site is perfect for “Listen to Reading” stations.

Grade Level: Pre-K to 3rd Grade (Ages 4 to 8 years old)

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