This page brings together free online books, topic searches, and audiobooks related to children’s fiction, including fairy tales, family stories, adventures, moral tales, and classic books for children. The materials range from older public domain works to modern novels.
The Topics section below helps readers find books within the huge Internet Archive collection. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Browsing the topics and selecting those of interest is usually easier and more effective than searching Internet Archive directly.
Sections below Topics provide links to audiobooks and other resources. See those sections for more information.
Contents
Search by Author
Search for an Author’s Books
Try searching for books by author. In the search bar in this link, in the creator field, replace LAST, FIRST with the author’s name. Save books you like to your Internet Archive account by clicking “Favorite” while logged in.
Topics – Free Children’s Books PDF Online
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to childrens books. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable books. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by year, language, or related subjects.
Grade and Age Level – Childrens Books PDF Free
Juvenile Fiction Books – Free Children’s Books PDF
Poetry – Children
Listen to Books Online – Narrated Children’s Books
These audiobook links lead to public domain recordings from LibriVox at Internet Archive. The books recorded by Librivox volunteers were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include fairy tales, Christmas stories, animal stories, nature stories, religious stories, and adventure stories for children.
All Librivox audiobooks are free and can be streamed online or downloaded for offline listening.
Listen to Librivox Children’s Books Online Free – Series and Authors – Books for Girls and Boys
Audiobooks at Librivox were recorded by volunteer readers from books in the public domain (usually pre-1930). You can listen online or download MP3 or MP4 files to your device without registering. These sections have vintage series for young people, and additional popular authors.
Series Marketed for Girls, and for Both Girls and Boys
Authors of Series for Girls, and for both Girls and Boys
Adventure Series Marketed for Boys – Books You Can Listen To
Authors of Books for Boys – Listen to Books Online
Reading Guides – Free Children’s Literature KidsBooks
The selected free online books below provide an alternative to searching Internet Archive through the Topics section above. These individual titles were chosen as especially useful or representative works related to subjects on this page.
Children’s Core Collection
Fiction and Story Collection
Corsaro, Julie, et al.
Wilson 2015
The Guide to Fiction and Story Collections has thousands of books recommended for children from pre-school through Grade 6, containing review sources and professional aids for librarians. H.W. Wilson has been a major publisher of reference works for librarians for more than a century.
Something about the Author (Volumes 1-238)
Kumar, Lisa, ed.
Gale 1971 – 2012
“Facts and Pictures about Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young People” – Publisher.
100 Best Books for Children – Children’s Literature KidsBooks
Silvey, Anita
Houghton Mifflin 2004 Dewey Dec. 016
The author’s “long experience as a book reviewer and editor makes her list pretty much spot-on… . Each title gets a short essay that not only discusses the book and what it has meant to its audience but that also supplies wonderful behind-the-scenes information. … A helpful list, ‘Beyond the 100 Best,’ points parents in the right direction for more good reads.” -Booklist.
The Best Children’s Literature: A Parent’s Guide
Trachtenberg, Ellen
Parent’s Guide Press 2003
“With more than 1,000 titles represented, this book comes complete with developmentally appropriate recommendations and an extensive subject index that enable children, parents, caregivers, and educators to find books that are appropriate for particular skills and levels of interest. Also included are interviews with parents and children about their favorite books, a list of awards and their recipients, featured author profiles, and discussions on developing children’s love of reading in this age of multimedia.” – Publisher. ChildrensBooks.
Vintage Reading Guides – Free Children’s Books PDF
Vintage books were nearly always published before 1930. They can be read online or downloaded.
VINTAGE – Young People Reading Guides – Children’s Literature Books PDF Download Free
List of Series and Sequels for Juvenile Readers (Useful References Series)
Wead, Katharine H.
Faxon 1923.
The volume lists all the books in each of more than 100 series for children and teens.
Children’s Catalog of Thirty-Five Hundred Books: A Guide to the Best Reading for Boys and Girls
Based on fifty-four selected library lists and bulletins; arranged under author, title and subject; with analytical entries for 700 volumes
Wilson, H.W.; Bacon, Corinne, comp.
Wilson 1917
Children’s Catalog Supplement: A Guide to the Best Reading for Boys and Girls
Four Hundred and Fifty Books chosen chiefly from books published between June 1, 1916, and January 1, 1918; arranged under author, title and subject; with analytical entries for 78 volumes
Wilson, H.W.; Bacon, Corinne, comp.
Wilson 1918
Includes children’s American historical fiction books.
Related Pages on Century Past
See our Century Past directories for hundreds of webpages of Books; Magazines; Articles, maps, & photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find the same directories on the top Menu. Here are a few suggested pages: