Learning & Leading Through Technology

Problem: My young students love reading books online, but our school library has a limited supply of e-books.

Are there other places I can find free books for tablets and laptops?

Here’s a solution: If your school library is short on digital books, several places online offer free e-books.

Check out the graphic novels within the Professor Garfield Toon Book Reader ( www.professorgarfield.org/ toon_book_reader), popular picture books from We Give Books (www. wegivebooks.org), and the books read by actors in Storyline Online ( www.storylineonline.net).

Don’t forget about all the websites that offer free nonfiction reading, such as American Girl Magazine,

Sports Illustrated Kids, and National Geographic Young Explorer e-books.

Many public libraries offer e-books in multiple formats, including Kindle,

Have a tip to share?

Email it to dfingal@iste.org.

Nook, iPad, and MP3. OverDrive is a service that supplies more than 22,000 libraries and schools around the world.

If your local library uses OverDrive or a similar vendor, it’s worth demonstrating to students and parents how to log in and start borrowing books. The beauty of it is that students or parents can borrow anytime from anywhere there’s an internet connection as long as they have a library card. Encourage your students to get their own library cards so they can begin downloading from the thousands of e-books available.

There are many other places to find free digital reading materials—too many to name here! So please check out my Symbaloo webmix “Fun Places To Read” ( www.symbaloo.com/mix/ funplacestoread). Feel free to embed the link into a blog or website and share it with your school community via social media and email.

Get Free E-Books for Tablets, Laptops, Readers

Shannon McClintock Miller is the district teacher librarian and technology integration specialist at Van Meter Community School in Iowa, USA. Find her on Twitter @shannonmmiller and read her blog, Van Meter Library Voice.