International Children's Digital Library (ICDL)
© 2003 ICDL
Update April 2010: a new free iPad version lets you flip pages and has a feature called "PopoutText technology" which we did not try. It is "designed to make it possible for users to read story text clearly in the context of highly illustrated beautiful children’s picture books – regardless of screen size." Here's the review from 2003. Imagine having hundreds of free children's books available to anyone who can get on the Internet. That's the idea behind this free (supported by public and private grants) online library, found at www.icdlbooks.org. More formally, the library is designed to "build an international collection that reflects both the diversity and quality of children's literature." Note that since the first review (3.2 stars) the site has been improved so that you don't need specialized hardware or software to browse the books. Also, a text only set of menus makes finding the books much easier. New features include book overviews that indicate page numbers and current page location, better page resizing on book pages, more sorting options on search results, access to Adobe eBooks via Adobe Acrobat 6 and an improved navigation history trail. As of August 2003, there were 262 books listed on the site.
Internet Site, iPad, iPod
Teaches: language, reading, children's literature, division, graphing, observing