Does your child love listening to stories? Audiobooks are a brilliant way to keep kids entertained while quietly building their language and listening skills — and the good news is there are plenty of free audiobooks for kids out there if you know where to look.
Audiobooks let children enjoy great stories with all the fun of characters, accents and voices brought to life. For kids who find reading tricky because of comprehension, concentration or literacy difficulties, audiobooks mean they can still enjoy a brilliant story without the frustration of battling through the words on the page.
They’re also a lovely way for children to enjoy stories that might be above their current reading level, helping them pick up new vocabulary along the way.
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Places to Get Free Audiobooks for Kids
BorrowBox
Bolinda’s BorrowBox offers a large range of junior audiobooks, and it’s free with a library membership. Simply register using your library card number and PIN.
You can also download the BorrowBox app (iOS or Android) to enjoy audiobooks and eBooks on the go, straight from your phone or tablet.
Audible
Audible hosts a large collection of stories and audiobooks for kids, including:
- Folk and fairy tales from around the world;
- Childhood favourites like Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter;
- Literary classics such as The Jungle Book, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, and Wuthering Heights.
Audible periodically makes a selection of these titles free to stream on desktop, phone or tablet, so it’s worth checking their current listing for what’s available without a subscription.
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Loyal Books
Loyal Books offers free public domain audiobooks with matching eBook downloads, so your child can listen and read along at the same time. You’ll find lots of classic children’s stories here, including The Velveteen Rabbit and The Railway Children.
Storynory
Storynory offers free audio stories, with most aimed at children around 7 to 11 years old. There are also nursery stories and rhymes for preschoolers, plus some more sophisticated tales for older listeners. The site aims to choose stories with strong writing and imaginative narration.
Audiobooks.com
Audiobooks.com has a selection of free audiobooks for kids, including titles like Pollyanna and The Princess and the Goblin. They also offer a free trial that includes a limited number of audiobooks, after which it moves to a paid subscription. On the paid tier you’ll find popular authors such as David Walliams and Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid).
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LibriVox
LibriVox is a free service offering audiobooks from the public domain, read by volunteers. Books can be streamed online or downloaded, and some feature a full cast acting out the story, while others are a single narrator reading straight through.
You’ll find lovely children’s classics here like Anne of Green Gables, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Secret Garden.
There’s also a free LibriVox app for iOS and Android.
Spotify
There are lots of free audiobooks tucked away on Spotify — they can just be a little tricky to find. Try these playlists to get started:
- Beatrix Potter and other stories
- Dr Seuss books
- Cinderella, Lion King and other stories
- DBS Audiobooks has a lot of the classics, like Robinson Crusoe and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
If you have a Premium Family membership, you can also use Spotify Kids, a standalone app available for iOS and Android. It’s suitable for kids aged 3+ and pulls together playlists so children can easily find stories and music themselves.
Lit2Go
Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in audiobook format. Many can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along. You’ll find classic children’s stories such as Gulliver’s Travels and A Little Princess.
Vooks.com
Vooks.com is a kid-safe, ad-free streaming library of read-aloud animated storybooks, available on TV, iOS, Android, computer and more. They offer a free trial period before moving to a paid monthly subscription — check their site for current trial terms.
Amazon Storytime
Amazon Storytime is a free Alexa skill for kids aged 5-12, with a collection of short stories featuring lively full-cast recordings.
Kids can choose from categories including bedtime, silly, family and friends stories, or spin the magic story wheel for a surprise pick. There are original stories from LEGO®, and interactive story adventures with Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are audiobooks good for children’s reading development?
Yes. Listening to stories builds vocabulary, comprehension and a love of storytelling, even before or alongside independent reading. For children who find reading difficult, audiobooks let them enjoy stories without the frustration of decoding text.
What age are free audiobooks suitable for?
It varies by platform. Some services, like Storynory, cater mainly to children aged 7 to 11 but also include nursery rhymes and stories for younger kids. Others, like Spotify Kids and Amazon Storytime, are designed for a broad range from preschool through to preteen.
Do I need to pay for any of these services?
Many of the options above — including BorrowBox, Loyal Books, Storynory, LibriVox, Lit2Go and Amazon Storytime — are free to use. A few, such as Audiobooks.com and Vooks.com, offer free trials or a limited free selection before moving to a paid subscription, so it’s worth checking the current terms before signing up.
Can audiobooks be used alongside reading practice?
Definitely. Services like Loyal Books and Lit2Go pair audio with eBooks or printable text, so children can listen and follow along with the words at the same time — a great way to build reading confidence.
Related Articles
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- 100+ Educational (And Fun!) Online Learning Resources For Kids
- 30 Amazing Books For Kids Who Love David Walliams
- 10 Hugely Entertaining and Educational Podcasts For Kids
Found another great spot for free kids’ audiobooks? Let us know in the comments below — we’d love to hear from you!
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