Recommended Website:
Free Online Picture Books
ClickScholar, Mary Burns, suggested this website that allows you to look at children’s picture books – in their entirety, from cover to cover – online. She wrote, “You can look at every page, either to read them with your child online, or to see if you want to buy it, or check it out from the library.”
Lookybook provides this service, not to “replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids.”
The website provides you with a virtual bookshelf of not just the “best sellers,” but undiscovered gems. Find classics and even obscure books through the searchable data base.
Through Lookybook, you can “test-drive” picture books to find out which ones you want to buy. (Of course, Lookybook provides a way for you to purchase the books through their website, but it’s not a requirement.)
When you get to the site you’ll see the featured book. Simply click on the cover and each subsequent page to read the entire book. Below the featured book are the new books recently added to the site, and below that, you can register (free) to create your very own online bookshelf of favorite titles.
Use the menu on the left side of the screen to search the database by author, subject, or keyword. Or, click on “Bookshelves” to access the A to Z archive of book titles.
Another interesting aspect of Lookybook, is that once you register to create your own bookshelf, you can review books and share your comments with fellow Lookybookers. You can also see what they have to say about the books they’ve read.
Whenever you read a book online, Lookybook will automatically generate a collection of other books that you might enjoy and display it on the left side of your screen. That way, you’ll discover books you may never knew existed.
This is a terrific resource you will use again and again – be sure to bookmark it!
