I have noticed that a lot of online ebook stores have the nerve to try and charge as much as $10 each for ebook versions of books that are out of copyright, and thus to be found legally free on many honest on-line ebooks sites, so if you simply go to a site such as one or other of the two Gutenbergs you can download them perfectly legally for nothing at all – which is how it should be.

Different countries, different copyright laws:

As the majority of online ebook sites are based in the USA just now, obviously American copyright laws pertain to them, which I believe have copyright for about 70 years after the death of the author, but there are plenty of sites on line that are registered in other countries, who have much more sensible copyright laws.  In Australia for example it is 50 years, so basically anything written up to 1963 is now out of copyright in Australia and can legally be given away on sites such as Gutenberg Australia.

So it is well worth checking on the original date of publication before parting with good money for an ebook….   if it was written 50 or more years ago you can probably find it for free somewhere on the net, and the only laws you might possibly be breaking might be your own countries laws if you are unfortunate enough to live in the USA that is.

What is the point of long copyright periods?

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Now for the last couple of great ebook sites for kid’s ebooks.  Here I shall be looking at a couple of truly amazing sites for kid’s ebooks

Megamouse, a wonderful name for a site.

This site, which consists of the writings of its owner,  Emma Laybourn, has a range of enchanting ebooks for kids aged between 3 and about 12, which as I said, are all written by Emma, a lady who obviously has a real talent for story telling.  The illustrations which are also wonderful, lively and very clear, make these ebooks a real pleasure to see – Though I am not sure who actually does these illustrations, but whoever it is does a great job in helping bring these stories to life.

She appears to have written dozens of these stories, all of which you can read online on her site, or download from one or other ebook website.

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Yesterday I looked at a couple of sites for ebooks for the very young, today I shall point you at a couple for older kids.   There are a vast number of online ebook stores that sell ebooks for kids of all ages of course, but I shall be looking at sites that offer free or very cheap ebooks that are legally available for you to download.

Bookrix, Superb collection of cheap and free kid’s ebooks:

Bootrix, a site I have already written about here (Link to that post), offers both free and  ebooks for sale in a wide range of genres, so of course they have a category of ebooks for kids.  Their collections are divided into “Books for Sale” and “Free Books”, and to my surprise, in the category “Juvenile Fiction” whist they only have a couple of pages of titles for sale, they have hundreds that are free.. So this is a site that you should definitely use to get ebooks for your kids, or if they are old enough to go ebook hunting for themselves, make sure you point them at this site.

As I mentioned in my earlier look at this site, all the free ebooks are hosted on their site, and the ones that are for sale are in fact only links to Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble or whoever it is that is actually selling that particular ebook.    But this of course is not a problem in any way.

Image courtesy of NY Times

You do  not need to register with Bootrix to download their free ebooks, simply select the category you are interested in – in this case either Free Books, Juvenile Fiction or Free Books, Juvenile Non-fiction, and then work your way through the lists you are then presented with until you find what you are looking for.

As with most such online ebook stores, you are given a screen full of thumbnails of the covers and a brief synopsis of all the ebooks, so choosing is simple enough.

Free ebooks seem all to be ePub.

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Kids should read or be read to, this is a given in my view, so where can you get good, cheap and gripping ebooks for your kids?  I shall be looking at a number of good online sources of ebooks over the next three days that your kids will love.

Image thanks to the Guardian Newspaper

The really young.

I shall start with a  good source of ebooks that you can read to your very youngest kids, a publisher who produces and sells ebooks that are aimed at kids in the 2 to about 5 age range.

These will to a degree be more or less interactive, as one of the real advantages of ebooks over their paper cousins is that they can have sounds, videos and other forms of useful and entertaining extras, which if done with care can enhance the pleasure our smallest readers can get from having these ebooks read to them.

But not only interactive.

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In my continuing search for free or at least cheap legal ebooks I think I have found a good one here.  Bookrix offers a very wide range of ebooks for you to download, some free, some you have to pay for.  However, most of the ones you have to pay for are very reasonably priced, with most costing between $0.99 to $8.00.

The free ebooks seem to be in ePub format for the most part as far as I have been able to tell, and the ones you have to pay for come in a whole range of formats.     They offer two methods of downloading them, either directly to your computer, or directly to your iPhone or iPad, which is rather neat I feel.  Oh, and you can also read them online on their site if you prefer as well.

It isn’t necessary to register with this site to buy or download their ebooks, with  the free ones you can download them directly from Bookrix, and for the ones that are not free, you are offered the links to the online ebook stores where you may buy the ebook you have chosen.   In other words, Bookrix can’t actually sell you any ebooks, but gives you the specific links to that ebook at Amazon, iBooks or whoever it is who actually can sell it to you.   So for ebooks you have to pay for, they simply serve as a convenient search engine for ebooks, saving you the trouble of wandering around in a load of different online ebook stores.

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Worldreader, who are busy in a number of African countries bringing ereaders into poor rural schools have just announced the formal launch of their ebook App Worldreader Mobile to bring free ebooks to Feature phones.

Since the beta launch of this App, almost half a million people in  Africa and India have downloaded the App and have been devouring free ebooks at a rate that is almost impossible to imagine.  Literally tens of thousands of ebooks have been downloaded and read on these relatively simple 2G mobile phones thanks to this App.

Young girl reading an ebook on her mother’s mobile phone

Worldreader have put together an informative PDF that explains exactly what has happened with all relevant figures, which you can read by following this link.   This is a 25 page document, simply bursting with information.. and very well worth reading if you want to see how such a relatively simple idea as this App can totally revolutionise the lives of people who otherwise would have no access to reading.

I read this document with fascination and happiness, to see such an amazing take up of an idea is enormously encouraging, and totally validates the work that Worldreader have been doing for the last couple of years in Africa to bring literature to poor communities in a totally practical and realistic fashion.

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