Elementary: Home

Where to go to find books to read or listen to online?

Borrow ebooks and digital audiobooks any time, anywhere, collected and shared by several international schools in Vietnam, as well as books purchased just for the use of HIS students and teachers.

Go to Sora. [On your phone or tablet you'll need to install the app.] Click on "Find my school" and choose Hanoi International School under the Vietnam Schools Consortium. Sign in with your HIS Google account. Look for a book. Borrow to read or listen on your laptop, phone or tablet.

Epic! If your teacher has created and shared a class account, you can use this amazing collection of ebooks from home for free during school hours. Parents can subscribe for use outside of school time for a small fee.

Tumblebook Library (username: hanoi; password: books) offers hundreds of ebooks and audiobooks.

  Story Box Library (username: SBHIS; password: hisreads) is "the best stories being read aloud to you by our favourite storytellers" from Australia. Includes books categorized by PYP themes.

 Vooks turns popular storybooks into videos with clear narration and catchy music. Like Epic, Vooks is free for teachers and available to families at home for a small fee.

More sources of ebooks and digital audiobooks:

Storyline Online This award-winning children’s literacy website streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.

ReadingIQ  is a comprehensive digital library developed by Age of Learning, the creators of the award-winning ABCmouse Early Learning Academy; provides the best of children’s literature, including Caldecott and Newbery award winners, National Geographic and National Geographic Kids books,.., and thousands of additional high-quality fiction and nonfiction books from leading publishers. Free for educators who can add students to a class account.

International Children's Digital Library is a free collection of ebooks in many languages, from many countries.

Global Storybooks Online is another free multilingual source for storybooks from around the world for children and youth.

Oxford Owl Oxford University Press offers a free ebook library (registration required)

Free Kids Books A library of books available for reading online or downloading. (Be careful of the ads!)

Loyal Books There are many classic children’s books now in the public domain. This is one site offering them as ebooks and audiobooks.

Project Gutenberg Another source of public domain ebooks. This would be a good resource for older students.

Don't forget to look in the Library catalogue, and check out the web pages that come up in your searches there.

 Gale In Context: Elementary (formerly Kids InfoBits), introduces elementary school students to database searching with easy-to-use resources featuring age-appropriate, curriculum-related content. (Password: empower)

 National Geographic Kids “Reputable, authoritative, and appropriate content that brings children aged 6-14 the world in a way they've never seen it before. Fun and substantive, National Geographic Kids will take them on amazing adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology, and space.” (Password: empower)

PebbleGo is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-3 students. Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities, it boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in core subject areas. 

The Day A daily news source from the UK for students, offering five different reading levels. Includes articles pinned to the IB Learner Profile and to Theory of Knowledge.

CommonLit offers over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12.

Newsela Articles and text sets leveled for reading and comprehension. Lots of interesting current information for any student.

The #SDG Book Club provides a list of books for each of the 17 Goals. The website provides resources and advice for starting a virtual book club with a global perspective. 

At HIS all the books recommended by the UN for the book club have been identified with subject headings. Other books that relate to the 17 goals also have appropriate subject headings to make access easier.