Schools, libraries, and learning centres may be shut, but listening and reading must not stop. We bring to you a host of open-sourced websites that feature some of the best children’s stories from across the world. The Kahani Project celebrates these platforms because just like us, these platforms host stories to set them free!
StoryWeaver is one of the biggest free, digital repositories of children’s stories. It has over 23,000 stories covering 257 languages that cater to children of all age groups. They have also designed age-appropriate programs for learning from home with stories. With colourful illustrations and interesting stories, the platform is such that children would enjoy reading and keep coming back for more!
If you are someone who is tired of the almost exorbitant pricing of audiobooks, LibriVox is your haven. As the name suggests, LibriVox is an audio library of books, for all age groups, from across the globe. Run by a community of volunteers, LibriVox offers free access to over 24,000 public domain texts like short stories, novels, poems, and dramatic works in different languages.
Lit2Go is a free online collection of children’s stories and poems in the Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material.
Freechildrenstories.com is a collection of original stories for children. Started by Daniel Erico, an investment banker turned bestselling children’s books author, the platform features his storybooks, free of cost to encourage literacy and free media for children.
‘ePustakalaya’ is a destination for books in Indian languages. It has more than 10,000 books in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Sanskrit, covering various fiction and non -fiction categories like poems, folk tales, children’s stories, history, economics, politics, etc. As a collection of books from various open-sourced platforms, all material at ePustakalaya is freely accessible and can also be downloaded to be read at your leisure.
If you are looking for eclectic children’s stories explored through creative ways of expression, Tulika Books is for you. Original stories for children in different Indian languages are available on the website in various formats. Tulika books is an established publishing house and focus multilingual picture books for children – in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali through this website.
Started by Vaishali Kulkarni, Katha Mehfil is an online platform of children’s stories in the audio and video formats. Apart from sharing children’s stories rooted in diverse cultures, Katha Mehfil also organises engaging online activities for children which are not just fun but also have a learning quotient attached!
The website interface might not do justice to the treasure that lies within because Arwind Gupta Toys has the most beautiful collection of books archived for readers of all tastes. The platform includes children’s books in English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya and many other languages which make world stories more accessible and inclusive. Your child will be missing out on a delightful treat if you don’t visit this one!
Staying true to its name, Internet Archive makes available 451 billion web pages giving the viewer access to free movies, books, music, software, website and more. Having 20+ years of web history, there are slim chances that you would not find a copyrights free children’s book at Internet Archive.
CLABIL, which is short of Central Library of Audio Books in Indian Languages contains 6908 audio files in 22 Indian Languages. Started with the aim of making books available to the blind, the resources today come handy to a lot of other people too and you and your child can be one of them.
11. Storynory
Completely dedicated to children’s stories, Storynory has a collection of original stories, fairytales, myths, classics, educational stories and poems. The collection has well acclaimed stories, presented in the audio format. The story collection is as colourful as the website and your child is most likely to love listening to these.
