Reading and Listening

The best place for your nose is inside a book. Jean Little


Audiobooks Online

Search inside the whole list of Audiobooks here:

Audiobook Custom Search


https://stories.audible.com/discovery

Audible is giving access to 100’s of books during this time. Enjoy!


http://www.loyalbooks.com/

These books are in the public domain (no longer in copyright) and are read by volunteers. You can either listen to it streaming or download the book as an MP3.

Once you've found the title you want to listen to, click on the title or picture of the cover to go to the download page.

DO NOT click on the blue DOWNLOAD button, because that takes you to a commercial site. Instead, go to the options below the book summary.

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in 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.

http://www.openculture.com/freeaudiobooks

Download hundreds of free audiobooks, mostly classics, to your MP3 player or computer. You'll find great works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, by such authors as Twain, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Orwell, Vonnegut, Nietzsche, Austen, Shakespeare, Asimov, HG Wells & more.


Librivox

https://librivox.org/

Books in the public domain read by volunteers. Searchable by genre, as well as title, author, subject.


Storyline Online

https://www.storylineonline.net/

Actually video, but a wide variety of story books read by actors from the Screen Actors Guild, like James Earl Jones, Elijah Wood, Melissa Gilbert, etc.



EBooks Online

Search inside the whole list of ebooks here:

EBook Custom Search


https://openlibrary.org/collections/k-12

You’ll need to make an account to “borrow” books, but this collection has the best popular and up to date books, sorted by grade level and genre. As far as I can see this is definitely the best free online book resource. Included is text-to-speech so a computer will read the book to you. This collection is part of Open Library, which also includes more adult related books, so you might want to make sure your kids are on this part of the site. You might also want to check out the Resource Guides.


http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

The mission of the ICDL is to support the world's children in becoming effective members of the global community by making the best in children's literature in various languages available online free of charge by building a digital library of outstanding children's books from around the world. The library is browsable by age, genre, and length of book. Mostly for Elementary students.


http://abdodigital.com/login/

Ebook options are available for free in the next few months to support school closures. These must be read online. There are fiction, non-fiction and graphic novel options. You can browse by grade group or audience to narrow your search.

Username: spring Password: 2020


Christian Book Distributors

https://www.christianbook.com/page/ebooks/free-ebooks

Although most of the other sites have books by the great Christian thinkers, this site offers some current Christian works.


https://www.worldreader.org/keep-children-reading/

BookSmart gives parents and caregivers access to a library from their mobile phones so they can support their children’s learning while physical schools are out of session. BookSmart starts with a free base collection – 75+ great local and international books suitable for young readers and their parents available on Android phones via the Google Play Store.


http://www.justfreebooks.info/

With JustFreeBooks you can find all sorts of free ebooks for your Kindle, Nook or tablet: public domain texts, open books, free audiobooks and more. JustFreeBooks searches the content of more than 700 websites that offer books without charge, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org. Just type in the search box the title, author or theme you want to find.


http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books or eBooks.


http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/Alist.html

Over 2,100 publicly-available ebooks from the University of Virginia Library's Etext Center, including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children's literature, American history, Shakespeare, African-American documents, the Bible, and much more


http://www.worldlibrary.net/index.htm

Housed in World Public Library Multi-Terabyte server network is the world's largest digital archive of PDF eBooks and eDocuments. Our collection hosts more than 500,000+ PDF eBooks and eDocuments. As a member you will have complete access to the entire collection. Our collection is constantly growing. Our projection is to reach 600,000 by the fall of 2008.


http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/authorlist.html

We have hundreds of classic books you can read right now, all absolutely free! It is an ideal way to expand your horizons, catch up on your reading list, or read books that it seems like everyone else has already read.


http://www.bartleby.com/fiction/

Bartleby.com provides the best works of fiction from a wide range of classic authors.


http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

These books are in the public domain (no longer in Copywrite) and are free to download in various ebook formats, as well as audio formats.


http://manybooks.net/

Browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from our visitors. Perhaps you'll find something interesting in the special collections. There are 18,784 eBooks available here and they're all free!


800 Free Books

http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks

These are mostly classics sorted by author

Also...


https://www.gvpl.ca/read/ebooks/

Lots of ebooks are available through our public library. Check out TeenBooks!


Sparks Notes Literature Classics Books

http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/index.html

1000 Classics from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to Wuthering Heights.


Family-Friendly Podcasts

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/532788972/circle-round

Circle Round is a storytelling podcast aimed at children aged between four and 10. It takes traditional folk tales and updates them for a modern, diverse audience. It represents all cultures and aims to teach children values like kindness and persistence.

Some of the audio plays feature famous voices and every episode features original music. Plus, the stories end with a question, aimed to spark a discussion amongst family and friends.


https://www.npr.org/podcasts/414697070/brains-on

Brains On! is a fun weekly science podcast that covers all sorts of topics. Your kids will learn how animals see the world, how sound waves work, why humans smell, and so much more. Chances are, any adult listening along will learn a thing or two as well.


https://www.earsnacks.org/

Teeth, cracks, puzzles… anything and everything is covered in Ear Snacks. The two hosts, Andrew Barkan and Polly Hall spend each episode exploring a topic alongside a number of parents, kids, and experts.

The unique element is that this a musical podcast. There’ll be random bursts of original songs that are not only catchy but educational too. It won’t be long before your kids are singing all about grapes or the body parts of a bug.


http://www.whatifworldpodcast.com/

Kids love inventing things and asking questions, so What If World is the perfect combination. Every episode opens with a theoretical (often silly) question from a listener. What if cats ruled the world? What if rich ghosts were bad at selling cars? Or even, what if french fries and drinks went to war?

Host Eric O’Keeffe tackles all of these wacky questions and turns them into fun, engaging stories that also include life lessons. Not only will your children have their imaginations sparked, but they’ll also accidentally learn good morals along the way.


http://www.marspatel.com/

Mars Patel is a scripted serial mystery, described by its creators as Goonies meets Spy Kids meets Stranger Things for middle-grade kids. It has great writing and sound design and will be Another great thing about this podcast, which currently has three seasons, is that the cast consists of kids. They all act really well and it lends authenticity to the story.


http://www.pantsonfire.pizza/

Pants on Fire is a game show perfect for the era of fake news and how quickly it spreads. Each week, a kid interviews two adult experts about all sorts of topics, like detectives, magic, and puppets. But here’s the twist: one of those experts is a big liar. They’re making all of their answers up. It’s pacy, quick-witted, and packed full of sound effects. The show encourages children to ask insightful questions, analyze what is presented to them, and know how to make informed decisions.


https://www.rebelgirls.co/pages/podcast

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is a bestselling book series that has been turned into a podcast. It aims to encourage the next generation by telling stories about extraordinary women.


Book Club for Kids is a 20-minute podcast which sees a small group of middle-grade students discussing their favourite books.

Episodes also include celebrity readings and interviews with authors. The books covered include some famous ones, like the Harry Potter and Divergent series, but also lesser-known recommendations too.


http://www.storynory.com/

Consider Storynory a potential substitute for your voice when your child won’t get settled to sleep. It features a new story each week. Natasha-Lee Lewis and her friends read each one beautifully. The content includes original stories, Greek mythology, fairytales, and more.


http://www.storypirates.org/

Since 2004, Story Pirates has used a world-class team to bring kids’ stories to life. Actors, musicians, and other artists come together on stage and act them out. The point is to get young people excited about literacy and its power. Sketch comedy and musical theatre combine with author interviews making each performance lively and memorable.



Slightly more than half (54 percent) of Canadians read books for pleasure regularly (virtually every day), and one-third (33 percent) read occasionally. The large majority (87 percent) read at least one book per year.

Book Review Sites

Searchable database of over 600 book reviews.

CM Magazine Canadian Review of Materials

http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/index.html

cm magazine has book reviews, media reviews, news, and author profiles of interest to teachers, librarians, parents and kids.

A collection of brief recordings of authors & illustrators

saying their names. Hello, my name is . . .

  • Hear authors and illustrators introduce themselves

  • Learn correct pronunciations of hard-to-pronounce names Reveal stories behind the names

Go to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z



Reading at PCS

Most of our required novels for English are on the R Drive at school under Audio Books.

You can access this at school only, but you can save the audiobook to a flash drive and

upload it to your own computer/phone/tablet/laptop to listen to at any time!


PCS Suggested Reading Booklists

Go to the Library Catalogue.

Along the top you will see the tab: Copy Categories.

Click and scroll down to the list you are looking for (ie English 10-12 Recommended Novels).

Click on the list and you will get a brief description of the books and by clicking "Show More" you'll find out if they are available or out!

English 8/9

English 8/9 High/Low

English 8/9 <150 Pages

English 8/9 <200 Pages


English 10/11/12

English 10/11/12 High/Low

English 10/11/12 <150 Pages

English 10/11/12 <200 Pages