EPIC! Online Books for Kids
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Epic! is a leading digital reading platform app and website that provides children’s books in the form of ebooks for a monthly membership fee. However, parents can try Epic! FREE for one month and classroom teachers always have free access.
The digital library of high-quality books and award-winning books from a variety of publishers continues to grow with children’s books for all ages and reading levels including picture book titles, chapter books, and middle-grade books.
For parents, I recommend trying Epic for free just to see if you 1) like the selection of books and 2) find out if ebooks work as an option for your child.
EPIC Online Books for Kids
Things We Like About Epic!
1. I like the “Read-To Me” option because it lets kids follow along with the text while hearing the words.
2. It’s nice that Epic! offers some Audiobook options, too. However, you can’t read along with these audio book stories which I dislike for picture books because you really need the pictures to comprehend the story.
3. Epic is FREE for teachers and students can connect to their teachers to earn classroom reward points.
4. Every time you click on a book, you’re told the age range, reading level, estimated reading time, and brief summary. This is helpful information to decide if it’s in your interest and ability level.
5. Where ever you stop reading, Epic! marks your place so if you want to pick the book back up, you can get started from where you left off.
6. Epic! records the time it took to read a book. This is good and bad. Good for parents to make sure kids don’t skip to the end and read a chapter book in 30 seconds but bad if you leave your browser or app open since it will show you took 7.9 hours to read a few pages. (see below)
7. Kids will like that they can search by keywords and by many categories such as recommended, popular, adventure, fantasy, funny, sports, mystery, world history, science, and more.
8. The resolution on this app is excellent.
9. Whether good or bad, I’m not certain but there are lots of videos — some about picture books and some, informational.
10. It’s a great way to bring books with you on the go. The app works on iOS, Android, and tablets.
11. Parents can monitor their individual child profiles and child’s progress.
12. Elementary school educators can monitor their class and each student’s progress with the student profiles option.
13. Kids can read anywhere.
Added 5/2021…
14. The EPIC emails recommend books you can send each child which I like. And, they’ll send parents weekly progress reports which include what day the child read, the minutes read, and the books finished.
15. Finally, don’t miss the engaging activity books that accompany many of the EPIC originals to extend the learning. They’re fantastic.
16. Search by topic to find nonfiction books and topics that spark your child’s curiosity. Or search the Epic Library to search by genre such as a graphic novel.
17. Check out the Epic originals — they include many excellent options with activities and quizzes!
Final Thoughts
Is it worth the monthly fee to have access to the books online?
YES, especially if you don’t have access to enough books.
Book access = reading success.
However, it depends on your child or student and what type of books he or she wants to read and that child’s preferences. Does an ebook work for the child?
Will the badges and rewards be incentives to motivate your student? Possibly!
Try it for a free month to see what you think.
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Parent Resources for Online Learning
For emergent readers and second language learners, the Unite Books app is an alternative that is always free for everyone. There are more than 500 mostly nonfiction picture books, narrated in 50 languages, in the app. The books are also available online at https://www.uniteforliteracy.com. No logins, games or ads, just great, diverse, narrated picture books.