Favorite Librivox Stories for Kids

Librivox is a website that offers thousands of free audio stories. As a parent, Librivox can help to provide countless hours of entertainment at home or in the car. Kids can just listen or get a copy of the book and follow along while listening to a plethora of volunteers who have read stories.

The secret behind Librivox is the age of the books. They are all in the public domain and therefore have expired copyrights. In addition to being great for kids, it is filled with stories for adults and can even be helpful when learning a foreign language.


With so many stories available, finding a place to begin can be daunting. Here is a list of some stories the kids and I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Animal and Fantasy Stories for Young Children

So many stories are available for young children. Many of us have heard of Peter Rabbit and The Wizard of Oz, but there are stories that are probably unknown. Arthur Scott Baily wrote several short stories for young children based on adventures of animals. Just William is about a mischievous little boy just having adventures.

Arthur Scott Bailey
Tale of Daddy Longlegs
Tale of Miss Kitty Cat

Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggle-Winkle

L Frank Baum
Wizard of Oz
Tin Woodman of Oz
Glinda of Oz

Alice in Wonderland

Wind in the Willows

Just William

Historical Fiction Stories

There are so many ways to learn about history through Librivox. Today, the Story of the World books are increasingly popular, but there are many books in the public domain that rival Story of the World. Eva March Tappan, MB Synge and HE Marshall all wrote stories in a similar fashion. They are based off different periods of history and each chapter tells the story of a famous person or event in history.

GA Henty wrote historical fiction novels each centered on a period of history. Most novels seem to involve a strong hero role model who saves the day. My kids have loved these stories beginning around 6th grade.



Eva March Tappan
Heroes of the Middle Ages
Makers of Many Things

MB Synge
Book of Discovery
On the Shores of the Great Sea

Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
Our Island Story
This Country of Ours

GA Henty
Beric the Britton
Wulf the Saxon

Fairy Tales

If you have sensitive or very young children, fairy tales definitely need to be listened to with discretion as so many of them have dark themes. That being said, many young children love fairy tales and Librivox is full of them. We have often listened to tales from different nations before beginning historical studies of the region.

Fairy Tales
Andrew Lang's color Fairy Books such as the Brown Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, etc.
Indian Fairy Tales
Celtic Fairy Tales
Andersen's Fairy Tales

Science Fiction

Between Jules Vern and Edgar Rice Burroughs, there is no shortage of science fiction on Librivox. We are currently listening to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and really enjoying it. The Tarzan Stories were fun, but better for kids in 7th grade and above.

Jules Verne
Around the World in 80 Days
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan Stories

That's just a start. There are tons of possibilities for free listening, it would take a lifetime to listen to everything.

To listen in the car, we download the stories into iTunes by searching in iTunes for "Librivox + Story Title". Then we create a playlist that contains all the chapters for a particular book, plug our iPod into the jack in the car and listen for hours on long drives.

Looking for more activities to do with children? Be sure to check out the pages of this blog; Math, Language Arts, Science, History, Geography, Arts and Crafts and these other great Blog Hops.

3 comments:

  1. I didn't know about this - I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the tip!

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  2. Thanks! We love librovax though sometimes we have to bear with the narrations.

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  3. Wow - this is really useful information. I didn't know about this site before. Thanks! #A Little Bird Told Me

    ReplyDelete

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