Empower your French immersion students with free digital books and online reading resources! Dive into our latest blog post, ‘Free Digital Books and Online Reading for FSL,’ curated specifically for educators. Explore valuable resources to enhance language learning in the classroom! **EDITED FEBRUARY 2024!!**

Edit: March 2021
With the recent developments around the COVID-19 virus and school closures, I wanted to re-share this post with free online reading options for French Immersion, FSL, or any French language learners with parents who might be struggling with educational online content. The original post is from 2018, so if you have come across more options or find any broken links please leave a comment below. I have crossed out some of the links that no longer work. Bonne lecture & stay healthy everyone!

Some of my other posts that may be of interest for home e-learning fun include:

• Digital Geo Tools
• Unplugged Coding in FSL
• Digital FSL Resources Page
• Online Escape Games for Students
• Là où je dors – An Interactive Website and Videos for FSL
• Google Drawings 101

— Original post:

With the addition of technology in schools, these days teacher’s classroom libraries are changing. Teachers who don’t have many physical books at their disposal have so many free options at their fingertips through digital books and online reading. I often get questions from French teachers about where to find free digital books and online reading for FSL (French Immersion, Extended, and Core French programs). I’ve been curating resources for some time and have created this list to make it easy for teachers to find quality internet-accessible French reading resources. Please see my list of online books and stories below, I will continue adding to it as I find great resources. The list is in no particular order, however, the more comprehensive ones with teacher management options can be found at the very bottom. 

Free Digital Books and Online Reading for FSL:

Il était une histoire: a collection of French stories and fairy tales for children.
https://www.iletaitunehistoire.com/

Scholastic:
(Free printable PDFs – lecture guide)*
Niveau A
Niveau B
Niveau C
Niveau D
Niveau E
Envol en littératie is a comprehensive French literacy program designed by Scholastic to support educators in teaching literacy skills to students. The program offers a wide range of resources, including leveled readers, teacher guides, assessment tools, and digital resources, all aligned with curriculum standards.

MiniMag (Numerico): MiniMag on Numerico offers engaging digital magazines designed for young children ages 4-7. These magazines are filled with colorful and interactive content in French, providing an enjoyable reading experience to spark early literacy development. https://numerico.cforp.ca/magazines/MiniMag

Mon mag à moi (Numerico): Mon mag à moi on Numerico offers engaging digital magazines tailored for children ages 8-11. Covering diverse topics in French, these magazines provide visually appealing content to spark interest and enhance literacy skills.
https://numerico.cforp.ca/magazines/MMaM

Quad9 Magazines (Numerico): Quad9 Magazines on Numerico offer engaging digital content for ages 12-15, covering diverse topics like science, nature, and history in French. Designed to enhance literacy and spark curiosity, these visually appealing magazines are valuable resources for French-language learning.
https://numerico.cforp.ca/magazines/Quad9 

Storybooks Canada French:  Storybooks Canada French offers a collection of children’s stories in French, although some content may require careful selection.

https://www.storybookscanada.ca/stories/fr/

TumbleBooks: TumbleBooks (Tumble Biblio Enfants) provides access to a selection of French-language children’s books in video format, though some may not work due to Flash issues. Example titles include “Pepin le penguin” and “Lou demenage.” https://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/Directlink.aspx?U=tdsb&P=reads&bookid=2483

Livres pour tous:

• • • Bande dessinées: Livres pour tous offers free printable or online PDFs of bande dessinées (comic books) in French. http://www.livrespourtous.com/e-books/list/onecat/Livres-electroniques+Bandes-dessinees/0/all_items.html
    • Jeunesse: Jeunesse section of Livres pour tous provides free French e-books for children.
      http://www.livrespourtous.com/e-books/list/onecat/Livres-electroniques+Jeunesse/0/all_items.html

Litterature jeunesse libre: Littérature Jeunesse Libre offers a collection of free French children’s books available for reading online or as downloadable PDFs. While the selection may vary, it provides access to a range of stories suitable for young readers, promoting French language learning and literacy.
http://www.litterature-jeunesse-libre.fr/bbs/

La Tête dans les Mots: La Tête dans les Mots offers a diverse collection of French books for children, with various genres available on the website. From picture books to chapter books, it provides engaging reading material suitable for different age groups and interests, fostering a love for reading and language learning.
http://latetedanslesmots.free.fr/collections.php?genre=2

Dom et compagnie: Dom et compagnie provides narrated French stories for children, focusing on listening comprehension. http://www.dominiqueetcompagnie.com/pedagogie/narrations.asp

Children’s Books Forever:
http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/childrenpages/French.html (free printable or read online PDFs)

Litterature jeunesse libre: http://www.litterature-jeunesse-libre.fr/bbs/ (free printable or read online PDFs)

3 Large Symbaloo Collections of French online stories, readers, and audiobooks: http://seduc.csdecou.qc.ca/5-au-quotidien/ateliers-tic-ecouter-la-lecture/?fbclid=IwAR1NW7pat63-LuNJqPREGt627-1EExfpSdwdsYNH_p6LDQPnBox8VFtXFUs

Story Weaver: https://storyweaver.org.in/stories?language=French&query=&sort=Relevance (471 audio stories)

Whisperies: https://www.whisperies.com/catalogue (reads aloud and some have moving images)

The Fable Cottage: https://www.thefablecottage.com/french

1Jour1Actu: https://www.1jour1actu.com/ Daily news stories for children with an interactive quiz after each one.

The French Experiment:
The French Experiment: The French Experiment offers free French language learning resources, including audio recordings and lessons for beginners. Through its engaging content and interactive exercises, The French Experiment aims to help learners of all levels improve their French language skills in an enjoyable and accessible way.
https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/stories?fbclid=IwAR134WOSqsh-to-HpjxjcmVJCmluuCk-p7SmwLZo6kT-D7myfW5z-pdRD_w (audio only books)

Conte-Moi: Conte-Moi: Conte-Moi offers a delightful collection of French fairy tales and folk tales, narrated in audio format. With its enchanting storytelling and captivating narratives, Conte-Moi provides a wonderful opportunity for children to immerse themselves in the rich tradition of French literature and culture.
https://www.conte-moi.net/lecture (audio books)

Organisation Internationale de la francophonie: https://crefeco.org/display.php?fr/Activit%C3%A9s/500 (audio -click on “séquence audio”)

EBook Kids: http://ebookids.com/fr/ (56 books)

Jeunes Banq: http://jeunes.banq.qc.ca/pj/ecouter/raconte/?fbclid=IwAR2bfinqD4pMfwtiQVjOwXv8NcTpJjbzEOk6STW6H_5bxF7utu_xWGRIJNk (191 books)
Listening only no images of pages.

Je Lis Online Audio Readers: (Links are for 20 free demo readers) *Demo readers are no longer free
https://jelis.rkpublishing.com/demo-readers

EDU365: http://www.edu365.cat/primaria/contes/contesfrances/tria_conte.htm

Internationitonal Children’s Digital Library: http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SimpleSearchCategory?ids=&pnum=1&cnum=1&text=&lang=French&ilangcode=fr&ilang=French&langid=12

Online FSL Reading with Teacher Management Features:

Boukili : Free illustrated children’s books in French

• • Brought to you by Groupe Média TFO.

• • A 54-book collection that supports online reading for ages 4+.

• • You need a free account to access this site.

• • Interactive reading for students with narration or solo reading options.

• • Teacher dashboard to help manage your student progress and guide their choices.

• Includes mini-games, and quizzes and students can even create an avatar.
• Has an iPad app.

Teachers visit: www.boukili.ca  Student login visit: https://app.boukili.ca/enfants

Lalilo: Free K-2 Literacy Software Program

• • Supports early literacy development through interactive exercises.

• • You need a free account to access this site. Teachers, students or parents can join.

• • Includes instruction across all components of literacy, including phonological and phonemic awareness, letter and word recognition, comprehension and fluency, vocabulary, writing, and more.

• • Has a teacher portal to track progress, data and even to help with planning. You can even test the activities before assigning them to students.

• Uses AI to sequence lessons and content levels to ensure that students are working on developmentally appropriate exercises custom for individual needs.

Visit: https://www.lalilo.com/

Infos-jeunes: Junior Level Online Reading Platform (free for Ontario Educators)

• • Weely relevant news articles for grades 3 and up with social studies focus.

• • You need a free account to access this site. Currently free for Ontario educators. 

• • Teacher dashboard to help manage your student progress and even self-grading quizzes for each of the articles.

• • Options to download and print PDFs of the articles.

• • Built-in audio so students can listen as they read.

• Built-in dictionaries right next to the articles.
  
• Here’s a French media lesson I built around a Pink Day article from Infos-jeunes.

Visit: https://www.infos-jeunes.com/

If you find any others that should be added to the list please reach out. Happy online reading!