Youth

What To Read

Not sure what to read? Check out a list of websites that can help you find your next favorite book!

NoveList K-8 Plus Get help finding your next book to read based on books you’ve read or topics you’re interested in. Includes reviews from 1996-present, book discussion guides, and book talks. For K–8 readers.

Juveniles Series & Sequels Made available by the Mid-Continent Public Library, this database contains over 36,000 books in 4,900 series titles that are classified into three audiences.

James Patterson’s ReadKiddoRead This website brings together reviews for books for newborns to teens, interviews with bestselling children’s authors, and a book blog with reading lists.

Kids Early Literacy & Homeowork Help

Get the help you need through a variety of online resources, such as ABCMouse, Bookflix, and Kids InfoBits!

ABCmouse.com With 3,500+ interactive books, educational games, puzzles, and other learning activities, ABCmouse.com’s award-winning online curriculum is an invaluable resource for young learners (ages 2-6+). In-Library Use Only

Britannica School Elementary Grades 3-4. Find information on countries, animals, and people. Watch and learn with videos, games, and activities.

Britannica School Middle Grades 5-7. Find maps, photos, articles, and famous people and places. Compare countries and tour the U.S.A. For homework help and your curiosity.

Early World of Learning Grades PreK-3. Follow Trek and Taffy the cat around the world. Share their love of colors, numbers, and other fun things. Come inside for stories and pictures.

LearningExpress Library Comprehensive practice tests and tutorial course preparation for academic or licensing tests.

World Book Online Online version of the World Book Encyclopedia, geared toward students, teachers, and families.

Explore Online

Explore the web through safe and secure sites on topics like books & authors, history, science, arts, and more!

Arts & Games

Chess Kids Discover the rules and strategies of chess. Improve your game, memorization skills, patience and sportsmanship with free online games, tournaments and club matches with kids around the world.

Classics for Kids Learn about some of world’s greatest classical composers and listen to amazing music! This site also includes information about the history of music, games, and materials for caregivers and educators, and lots of multimedia content.

Color with Leo Explore the world of art through interactive games, hands-on activities, and lessons with a young Leonardo da Vinci.

Sesame Street Games, videos, and art featuring your favorite Sesame Street friends!

Starfall Teaching children to read with phonics

Books & Authors

Dav Pilkey’s Extra Crunchy Website Meet Dav Pilkey in comic book form! Explore his books, videos, games and book app! Be sure to check out “Fun Stuff” for more activites and silly facts.

World of Jan Brett You’ll find everything from trolls to armadillos on this author/illustrator’s page. She has created The Mitten, That Hat, Armadillo Rodeo, The Trouble with Trolls, and Berlioz the Bea.

Harry Potter Lexicon The most complete and amazing reference to the wonderful world of Harry Potter. Including magical spells, potions, maps, lists of wizards and all manner of magical items and devices.

Roald Dahl This site offers all of the latest news, stories, and views about children’s author Roald Dahl.

Grace Lin Crafts, lessons, coloring pages and more based on the books of author/illustrator Grace Lin.

Judy Blume on the Web: Kids Page

Official Eric Carle Web Site

General

Mocomi Kids Activities, games, videos, and stories made with Motion Comics to make learning and building skills fun.

FunBrain Games, books, comics, and videos that develop skills in math,r eading, problem-solving, and literacy.

Pics4Learning Looking for images to include in a project? Teachers and students are granted permission to use all of the free images in this collection.

International Children’s Digital Library A collection of digital books for children that represent outstanding historical and contemporary books from around the world.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus access, plus word games & quizzes and more!

DK Find Out! Fun Facts, quizzes, games, and activities on a wide variety of topics, with the visuals and text boxes we’ve come to love in DK books.

Smithsonian Tween Tribune Looking for articles about science, history or current events? This interactive site features content for grades 5-8, with lexile level information. It is also possible for teachers to create accounts & use the site’s content in the classroom.

How Stuff Works 
Easy to understand explanations for common and not-so-common questions.

Discovery Kids 
Learning games, activities, and quizzes from Discovery Channel

History & Geography

GlobalTrek This site is a way for students to travel the world without having to leave their classroom. The travel itinerary provides links to background information and a chance to read about a country’s people and culture. There is even the opportunity to correspond and talk with people in their native language with the help of instant translation.

Seeking Michigan—The Mitten A collection of 4-page full-color readers with word puzzles that help kids learn about and understand important topics from Michigan’s past.  Each issue has a word puzzle at the end.

Archiving Early America A unique array of original newspapers, maps, and writings come to life on your screen just as they appeared to our forebears more than 200 years ago.

Primary History 
A visual site that includes timelines, biographical information, and depiction of historical event for elementary-aged children.

Gallery of Achievers Short biographies, profiles and interviews of individuals who have shaped the 20th century with their accomplishments.

Odyssey Online Discover Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and sub-Saharan African cultures with puzzles and interactive games.

Science & Technology

San Diego Zoo Kids Take a virtual trip to the San Diego Zoo! You can find pictures of all the animals at the zoo, or watch videos or live animal cams. There are also games and activities on this site. Most suited for elementary age kids, but younger kids might enjoy the pictures and videos.

Meet the Animals Find fact sheets, conservation status, and news about the animals living at the zoo.

Walking the Dinosaurs 
Created by the BBC, Walking with Dinosaurs features individual pages featuring interesting facts, images and statistics on particular dinosaurs.

Ocean Portal: Find Your Blue Discover the sea through a fun-filled blog, media gallery video, or current museum happenings. Explore ocean life and amazing ocean photos. Under the Educator’s Corner, check-out lessons plans for all grades.

Smokey for Kids Campfire Safety and Wildfire Prevention

Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Games, activities, and information for kids and families about the health benefits of adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet.

NASA for Students 
News and information about space for students.

Scratch Program and create you own interactive stories, games and animation and share with others. Includes video and step-by step guides.

Center for Game Science Games focused on scientific discovery, discovering optimal learning pathways for STEM education, cognitive skill training , and games that explore collective over individual intelligence.

Wonderville Interactive games, videos, and activities for learning about science, technology, engineering and math. (STEM)

Catch the Science Bug Solve science puzzles, do your own scientific investigations, or learn more about what scientists do on the job.

Earthquakes for Kids 
Learn about past, present and future predictions for earthquake activity. Includes neat facts about quakes, science fair project ideas and answers to frequently asked questions about earthquakes.

EngineerGirl The EngineerGirl website is designed to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women.

Climate Kids: NASA’s Eyes on the Earth Climate Kids offers kids clear answers to questions on global climate change through sections on weather, air, the ocean, fresh water, carbon, energy, plants and animals and technology. Includes educational games, activities, crafts, videos and information on green careers.

Wildscreen ARKive Ultimate multimedia guide to the world’s endangered species. Includes films and photos by the world’s best filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, and scientists.

Farmer’s Almanac for Kids A children’s version of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Contains facts about weather, star gazing, history and more.

KidsHealth KidsHealth has trainloads of accurate, up-to-date information about growth, food & fitness, childhood infections, immunizations, lab tests, medical and surgical conditions, and the latest treatments. You’ll find health games, How The Body Works animations, the KidsVote health poll, and tons of surprises.

National Geographic Kids National Geographic’s site for young readers is one of the best resources for information on the Net about the world, its people, and its wildlife. Not only can you read the newest edition of this magazine on-line, you can check out the contests, polls, games and even virtual adventures.

Ology American Museum of Natural History put together this wonderful website to help kids learn about all the cool creatures and natural elements that make up our world.

Code.org Code.org is a site designed to support the learning and teaching of computer coding. Features Hour of Code, a special program designed to teach beginners how to code. Through well thought out tutorials people of all ages can learn Scratch, Hopscotch and Java programming languages.

Social Studies & Government

Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government Introduction to the historical documents, governmental bodies, and underlying principles that shape the federal government.

The Mint Learn about money: earning it, saving it, spending it, investing it, tracking it and safeguarding it. This site has information for teachers and parents as well.

GenerationOn Find programs and resources that support the development of caring, compassionate and capable kids and teens through service, empowering them to become changemakers in their communities and the world.

H.I.P. Pocket Change 
Money doesnt grow on trees. In fact, here in the United States it comes from a place called the U.S. Mint. Learn all about the history of money in the US, watch cartoons about coins in the United States, play games, or join the collectors club.