The Blogging from A-Z Challenge continues today. Every day throughout April (except Sundays) I’ll be posting a range of ideas and tips for keeping your family entertained at home. It will include arts and crafts, games, learning ideas and imaginative activities for all ages. I thought it would be particularly useful while we’re all self-isolating or socially distancing, though it can be used for any time of year.
Letter “R” is for Reading, one of my favourite things to do! Books are a wonderful way of escaping from our worries and disappearing into the realms of imagination.
Below are some great bookish offers and resources to keep your bookshelf furnished, your mind active and your kids entertained.
Free & Cheap Books for All Ages
- Amazon is offering 2 months of Kindle Unlimited for free! After that, it’s £7.99 a month but you can cancel after the 2 months if you wish.
- Audible Listening has a collection of free stories for kids to stream on your device.
- Check your local library’s website as many libraries offer eBook lending and access to audiobooks, magazines and newspapers.
- Visit the Library Love blog and podcast for book recommendations and a catalogue of eBooks, audiobooks and eMagazines.
- Sign up to BookBub to get lists of amazing eBook deals delivered to your inbox.
Fun Bookish Activities
- Reading Rocks Reviews is a 5 lesson English project in which students write, video and share their own vlog-style book reviews with the help of some well-known authors including Michael Rosen.
- Consider signing up for Dewey’s 24-hour read-a-thon, taking place this Saturday (25th April).
- Discover new books to add to your TBR (to be read list) on Goodreads. You can add me as a friend here.
- Add these brilliant book bloggers to your blogroll: Olivia’s Catastrophe, Book Haven, Metaphors and Moonlight, The Literary Phoenix and Read All the Things. Just a small selection of my favourites!
Virtual Storytime
- Lots of children’s authors are doing daily read-alouds of their books on social media. We are Teachers offers a big list of them here.
- BookTrust has a lovely collection of interactive books you can read online or watch with signing.
- Watch the lovely Nick Butterworth reading “One Snowy Night” on Youtube. I adore the Percy the Park Keeper series.
- If you’re a fan of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler books, you can enjoy “The Highway Rat” read by David Tennant or “Zog” read by Eddie Redmayne on Facebook.
- Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, T.A Barron reads another chapter of his novel, Tree Girl on Facebook.
- Talu Tales is “a fantasy story world that inspires kids to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics”. They are on a mission to close the gender gap one story at a time and have released a series of “story surprises” on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- CBeebies holds storytime on TV at 6:50 pm with a different celebrity each day. You can also download their storytime app.
- Check out Jeff Goldblum reading Horton Hears a Who.
- Star Trek’s LeVar Burton takes us on a trip down memory lane with the Reading Rainbow.
- The Cotswold Tutor is hosting free online storytime sessions for EYFS and Key Stage 1 children on Facebook.
- For poetry lovers, let Patrick Stewart read you one of Shakespeare’s sonnets every day on Facebook or Twitter.
Have you been reading more or less than usual lately? Do you enjoy watching read-aloud videos? What was the last book you read that left an impression on you?
I love getting Amazon Prime’s free monthly First Reads email. You can download from their highlighted list of kindle books for free. I’ve read some great books that way. Weekends In Maine
Oh yes, I forgot about that. Good point!
I’m definitely going to be checking out the Dewey Readathon.
Don’t forget about local bookstores. Some are selling their books online or doing curbside pickup. One I used to frequent has a book bundle deal. You tell them your favorite genre(s), bookish likes and dislikes and they’ll put together a book bundle for you.
Ooh, good point. Unfortunately, we don’t have any independent book shops in my town, but there is one in the next town along that I could support by purchasing books online. A book bundle sounds lovely.
And joining an author’s newsletter you also sometimes get a free ebook! I’ve also started my Mythmaker Clique to give readers free books (I just want an honest review on two sites). A lot of authors are doing this right now to help readers escape.
An A-Z of Faerie: Red Caps
Good point, Ronel! I will think about joining the Mythmaker Clique when I am caught up with my review list. I love your stories!