In this installment of free things, I have found a number of
books available for free. You don’t even
need a Kindle or Nook to read these, as long as you have some digital device
capable of supporting a reader app. Also
places like Magic Blox have free books available for children to read once a
month. These are picture books in full
color and are charming reads for no cost.
All you need is a computer or access to one, like at a library.
I’m not sure you actually have to have a Kindle anymore to
be able to read free digital books from Amazon.
I often read my books including my free Bible from my desktop computer
and even my smart phone using a free app.
My husband uses his iPad to read digital books he has downloaded from
Amazon. Seems to me, of the thousands of
free books listed on Amazon, all you need is a device to read them from.
Some of the titles in the free book
list are rather obscure and it takes a long time to plow through the rather
useless or obsolete titles before you find a really cool gem, but I found
several. I was overjoyed to find all of
the Wizard of Oz titles (14, I believe) for free, as well as all of Anne of
Green Gables. There are several versions
of Aesop’s fables for free and Grimms Fairy Tales. Some of these even have illustrations. I had thought that these were titles that
contained no illustration to keep the cost low.
One super gem I found was a little known title called TheLife of Hon. William F. Cody Known as Buffalo Bill the Famous Hunter, Scout andGuide by William Frederick Cody.
This was such an unexpected fascinating book that I couldn’t believe it
was free. I included photos of Buffalo Bill. You could hear Buffalo Bill’s
charming voice in the story and the words and in the many anecdotes he told were funny
and clever. Who knew on top of
everything else that he was a writer too?
Some free titles are the first book of a series. I think this is rather genius. You get the first in the series free and so
if you like the series you get hooked and feel the rest of the books are a
bargain because you already know you liked the book and the characters. I started reading Mythos Academy series that
way; lovely YA series about a High School Academy for gifted students who were
descendants of ancient warriors like Vikings, Valkyrie, Amazons, Romans,
Spartans and even a Gypsy or two. I also
love Nikolas & Company series about a fantasy future and past where the
moon used to be a sister planet to Earth with magical creatures such as Mermaids
and Mermen, monsters, dragons and so much more.
Apps
Many apps on Amazon are free. Some are reading apps, banking apps, drawing
apps, and game apps. You have to decide
what you are looking for. Remember the
point of offering free stuff is in the hopes that you will see something you
are willing to pay money for. So they
sprinkle low priced apps in with the free apps.
Check before clicking.
Newer Apple devices also offer iBooks, which is very much
like Amazon in that there are thousands of free books listed, many of the same
titles as Amazon lists for free. It
seems redundant to me to have two sources with the same book listings but
sooner or later the competition will provide a wider variety of books not
listed on one or the other sites.
Competition is good.
Once a month Magic Blox allows your child to read one
digital picture book free on the computer.
All you need is a membership. The
site is full a great educational and interesting children’s picture books. I love that even the free book read looks and
feels/is animated like the pages of a book.
Your child will love this site and all the books there.
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