As a literacy-promoting treat, three illustrated children's picture storybooks for beginning readers aged 3-6, starring anthropomorphized animals, are being offered free courtesy of publisher Simon & Schuster's Meadowbrook imprint.
These are all written by Bruce Lansky, whom you may remember from previous Meadowbrook freebies for older children such as the
"Girls to the Rescue" series, or the
newfangled fairy tales shorts, or the
you-be-the-detective titles, with illustrations by Bill Bolton.
All three titles are currently available to pre-order in North America (Mexico included, slated for Feb 24th), but seem to be geo-restricted or otherwise unfree when I spot-check various regional Amazon stores, although YMMV and availability may change once they're officially released.
NB: there are sometimes duplicate previously existing listings for these titles in certain stores, so be careful if you're grabbing them directly via device. The free ones have an Early Reader banner across the top, the non-free ones say Picture Reader instead. I've no idea what the difference is, if in fact there is any besides the cover change.
For best results, these seem to require a certain level of app/device to comfortably read, but can still be gotten even if you have just the Kindle Cloud Reader or a regular Google Play account.
ETA: these are now apparently expired from Google and Amazon, but have become free @ B&N & Kobo.
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because promoting literacy to the kiddies (and for free!) in an electronic medium that might otherwise be used for non-literacy-promoting activities, while also teaching them empathy for non-humans is A Good Thing™.
Enjoy!
- Polar Brrr's Big Adventure, about the titular polar bear's adventures in delivering an important package @ B&N & Kobo (available to Canadians) Amazon & Google Play (both available to Canadians)
- Monkey See, Monkey Do, about an enterprising zoo resident who one day gets to explore with and learn from his fellow co-captives (this probably doesn't end in a jailbreak) @ B&N & Kobo (available to Canadians) Amazon & Google Play (both available to Canadians)
- Early Birdy Gets the Worm, about a young bird who winds up having a series of wacky adventures as he tries to do Exactly What It Says In The Title, @ B&N & Kobo (available to Canadians) Amazon & Google Play (both available to Canadians)