Free Online Story Books for Kids
Online Books for Children is a free library of short illustrated stories for kids aged about 3 to 8. Every story can be read on a phone, tablet or computer in three to six minutes, with no sign-up and nothing to download.
Browse stories by collection
Bedtime StoriesCalm stories for the end of the day.Funny Bedtime StoriesTen stories to make them laugh before sleep.Silly Bedtime StoriesMarshmallow rain, bubble dragons and other nonsense.Short Stories for KidsQuick stories about courage, kindness and family.Read Aloud BooksLots of dialogue, great for reading to a group.
Noah’s lunch is a kale wrap, so he tries to trade it for Silas’s mysterious brown paper bag. A funny...
Oliver has drawn plans for a three-story treehouse with a helipad. His tree is a small apple tree. A...
Leo and his sister have to wash Barnaby the muddy golden retriever before Mom gets home. Barnaby has...
Riley straps a cup of lemonade to his drone to deliver it to Mr. Henderson’s porch. Then a squirrel...
Elliot tapes banana leaves to his back and tries to land on a sunflower like the butterflies he...
Clarence the rooster hides an alarm clock in the hay so he can sleep in. At dawn it blasts rock...
Albie the alligator wants to win the Bayou Chef Championship, but he keeps swallowing his spoons. A...
Zork sneaks into a family's laundry room and greets the washing machine as the Great Spinning Leader...
Webster the spider is scared of buzzing flies, so instead of catching them he opens a tea room in...
Gizmo the robot tells jokes in binary and nobody laughs, until his squeaky, unoiled gears turn out...
Shirley the sheep can’t sleep, so Oliver the Owl tells her to count humans jumping a fence. They are...
Bruno is a big, tough guard dog who secretly loves butterflies. When a tiny yellow one lands on his...
Hugo the hamster wants to be a silent ninja, but every step crunches and squeaks. A silly bedtime...
Baxter is an orange cat who lives with three golden retrievers and is sure he’s a dog too. Then the...
Hubert is a ghost who is scared of the dark, so he haunts houses in glowing green pajamas with a...
Oliver the Moon is supposed to go to bed at sunrise, but he’d rather play video games with Leo. Then...
Clarabelle the cow wants to be an ice ballerina, so she puts each hoof in a milk bucket and heads...
Tick-Tock the old clock gets bored and starts running backward, so the whole town has ice cream for...
Barnaby wants to roast marshmallows for his knight friends, but every roar comes out as a cloud of...
Gigi is a giraffe who is scared of heights, so she ties pink knee pads on and eats with the turtles...
Pip the penguin finds the South Pole too hot, so he sails north and moves into a family’s...
Eli finds a tiny purple scarf and decides it makes him invisible. He hides behind a single daisy...
Sammy is the only squirrel with no acorns, just a mountain of mismatched socks. Then the forest...
Barnaby the Bear expects a storm, but a pink cloud rains giant marshmallows. A short, sweet bedtime...
The perfect banana is hanging on the next tree, and Milo the little monkey is too scared to jump the...
Lara is scared of the thunderstorm outside her window, so Mom builds a fort from a plaid blanket and...
Today Dad takes the training wheels off Breno’s red bike. What if he falls? A short story about...
Thomas is a heavy old steam engine who dreams of flying like the planes. Then lightning breaks the...
Antonella throws a packet of sunflower seeds over the wall into her grumpy neighbor’s gray garden...
Caleb is an umbrella who is afraid of rain. In a big storm he learns he can keep others dry. A story...
Ryan builds a spaceship from a fridge box and needs a co-pilot, but Dad is asleep on the sofa after...
Catarina’s new sparkly sneakers can talk, and all they do is complain about the floor, the pebbles...
Luna is a white Persian cat whose owner can’t paint anymore. Then Luna’s tail falls into the blue...
Pietro can’t read the board at school and is afraid glasses will make him look like a robot. Then he...
Ian is a bat who is scared of the dark. When a storm chases the fireflies away, his little brother...
Maria Clara goes to buy a perfect princess doll and comes home with a one-armed rag doll headed for...
Victor is in goal for the street-league final when the strongest kid on the block takes a penalty...
Agatha’s first tooth is still under her pillow in the morning. The Tooth Fairy forgot her! So she...
On a gray morning at the beach, Stella hears a whale crying alone out at sea. She can’t swim out to...
Danny’s favorite marble rolls under the sofa, and when he reaches in he touches something soft. A...
Rex the golden retriever is getting old and can’t chase the ball anymore. Edu finds a new way for...
Bryan’s green dragon kite gets stuck on a power line and his Sunday is ruined, until Grandpa sits...
Daisy and Grandma make bread together, and the sticky dough turns Daisy’s hands into bubblegum...
The power goes out in the middle of Elara’s cartoon and the dark feels scary. Then Mom lights a...
Maya's new yellow boots are spotless, and her mother would like them to stay that way. Then Maya...
Grace opens a heavy green book and feels a breeze, hears a river and smells pine. A short story...
Skye is a beautiful blue bird with a voice like a creaky door, and the other birds laugh. Then she...
Leo folds a paper boat called The Brave and races it down a flooded street toward a storm drain. A...
Sophia chases the perfect red autumn leaf around the park, and the wind keeps blowing it away. A...
Caspian the river is tired of rushing and wants to be calm like the pond. So he stops. A short...
All her dandelion sisters fly away on the wind, but Willow the little seed is too scared to let go...
A noisy woodpecker wakes Hootie the owl at noon, and for the first time she sees the world in...
Sterling is a proud, cold mountain who needs nothing. Then a soft little cloud settles on his peak...
Spinny the spider spends all night weaving a web to catch the Moon. In the morning, her web looks...
Cushty the mushroom lives in the dark and has never seen the blue sky the birds sing about. So he...
Pippin the tiny elf keeps a glowing quartz stone hidden in his burrow. Then a lost mole crashes...
Pip is a plain green caterpillar who dreams of color. After a long sleep in her cocoon, something...
On New Year’s Eve, fireworks burst over the forest and the animals think the sky is breaking. Pippin...
Benson the bullfrog hates his deep, loud croak. Then a storm hits the pond and the little frogs get...
Ruby and her little brother Oliver find silver balloons in Grandma’s Dream Box and float up through...
King Arthur’s golden crown is so heavy he can’t look down. Then the gardener’s son offers him a...
On the last days of summer at the beach, Bella finds an old pencil sharpener in her pocket and...
Sunny is a bright yellow umbrella who is sure the rain will wash his color away. Then a boy called...
Every hen on Sunshine Farm lays white eggs, except Daisy, who spends her days staring at the sky and...
Leo goes fishing with his dad hoping for a huge catch. The bucket stays empty, but the morning is...
Oliver the orange cat has hunted flies, paper balls and feet. Today he hunts the sunbeam on the...
Dexter is a bat who is afraid of the dark and sleeps hugging a jar of fireflies. One night the lid...
Maya, four, keeps a golden box of invisible things: the smell of Mom’s cake, Dad’s laugh. At bedtime...
Finley the goldfish finds a glowing white ball at the bottom of his tank and can’t work out what it...
Pip is a field mouse scared of every noise until he finds a lost silver thimble and wears it like a...
A storm traps Tina the ant and Toby the termite in a hole under an old oak. She’s strong, he can...
Pip is a little ghost who smells of lavender and can’t say BOO. Sent to scare a boy, he finds him...
Old Barnaby has a sore throat, so young Rusty must wake the sun, but his first crow sounds like a...
Grandpa draws a map, Grandma brings a flashlight, and Leo crawls through the Dark Cave under the...
A small white cloud can’t make thunder, but it can paint bunnies, castles and dragons in the sky. A...
Every animal at the Jungle Jubilee has its own color except Caleb the chameleon, who only copies the...
Dug is so big that every step makes the forest animals hide. Then he hears a little bird singing and...
Patch is a scarecrow who loves birds but scares them all away. One winter night a tired canary falls...
Barnaby the bunny has one floppy ear he wants to fix, until it hears a secret no one else can. A...
Lola the gecko loses her tail playing tag with Barnaby the cat and thinks she is broken. Grandma...
Glowy is a little firefly who is afraid of the night, until a lost moth starts crying in the dark. A...
Where to start
For bedtime, try Lara's Magic Blanket Fort or one of the funny bedtime stories. For reading together during the day, Victor's Great Save and Sir Pip and the Silver Helmet are good first picks.
About these stories
The stories are original, written for this site, and each one comes with its own illustration. They are short on purpose, so a story fits into the time you actually have: the minutes before lights out, a bus ride, the start of a class. You can read more about who runs the site on our About Us page.