The Best Digital Libraries for Kids and Students

Epic's user experience outpaces the competition in both its ease of use and its beauty. It’s also got an impressively large library of high-quality books -- these aren't the bargain bin picture books you'll find with some other competitors. As a result, browsing Epic! feels like a real library or store full of stuff that kids will actually want to read.There's recommended books by age as well as interest. Teachers can assign kids specific books, or even just set general themes students will like, then leave the choosing up to them. These recommendations improve as students rate and review the books they've read -- one of Epic!'s cooler features. Teachers will love all the extras Epic! offers for extending and encouraging kids' learning -- from monthly calendars and reading challenges to badges and educational videos. And while Epic! isn’t as accessible to all learners as something like Learning Ally (featured below), it does have a good set of core accessibility supports and expanding language support and quizzes.

If you're looking for a little more learning support layered into the digital reading experience, MyON might be what you need. While it doesn’t have the polish of Epic!, or the expansive library, there are enough books to satisfy students’ interests. Most importantly, each book is paired with an impressive batch of instructional features that allow teachers to extend reading and bridge reading and writing. While reading a book in MyON, students can annotate texts with drawing tools and highlighters, and also add notes. Teachers can review all of this work to get a sense of students’ thinking. After students are done reading, there’s a set of graphic organizers that can help structure their reflections. The final piece of the puzzle is MyON's projects. With this feature, students can complete writing tasks that teachers assign to them.

Raz-Kids has a smaller library than all of our other recommendations, but what it offers instead is a unique assessment tool that, for some teachers, could be the deciding factor. Also, with Raz-Kids students can read their books aloud, record their reading, and then send these recordings back to teachers for feedback and assessment. Students also start off with a benchmark assessment that fuels their recommended books. Once they get reading, every book features multiple-choice comprehension questions and some even have short response questions.

This is a newer tool that could, with enough time and further development, give Epic! a run for its money. In terms of visual design, ReadingIQ is a great looking product -- on par with Epic! -- and also features an impressive and growing library, including titles from Disney’s family of properties. This alone might make it the go-to option for some, since the familiar titles could be just the thing to motivate a reluctant reader. You'll also be pleased to know that, like Epic!, ReadingIQ is free for teachers.

If you’re serving students with reading-based learning differences -- whether due to a physical or cognitive disability -- you’ll want to take a good look at Learning Ally. It has accommodations and tools that makes books more accessible, including fully-voiced audio and excellent (possibly best-in-class) customization of how text is formatted and presented on the screen. Best of all: it’s free for qualifying students and features an incredible library of popular books students will love. While it’s not as big of a library as the expansive Bookshare (which is very similar), the human-voiced texts set it apart -- the thousands of texts Learning Ally does have will still satisfy.