This database contains thousands of free digital books from around the world with helpful, child-friendly navigation icons. There are a wide variety of options for choosing books including genre, characters, age group, colour of cover, language, book length, fiction/non-fiction, and award winning.
This is a wonderful resource for ELL students to be able to read books in both English and in their native language.

Recommended for ages 4-12. ( )

The ICDL promotes international reading with thousands of free e-books, both new and old. Their mission is admirable, to make children “effective members of the global community,” to overcome language barriers, and to make any culture’s juvenile literature internationally accessible. The various ways to find books have both children and educators in mind, but its child compatible navigational abilities are strongest. The “read books” display design reflects the needs of young readers, with buttons which filter book attributes encourages playful or purposeful browsing. If a young reader wants a medium book with a purple cover or an award-winning fairy tale with kid characters, this interface can provide it. Also in this easy to navigate menu is a scroll option for a plethora of language options. The advanced search features help further navigate the collection for readers who prefer a more traditional search interface. Upon selecting a book, basic information is provided alongside an option to start reading the book; also included is the option to read the book in another language if a translation is currently available. Each book contains high-quality scans from various international collecting repositories. There is also a page of teaching resource ideas, helping educators better utilize this Internet resource. This digital library is very highly recommended for digital readers ages three and up. ( )

This website is a fantastic resource for bilingual or non-English speaking parents and kids. The simple search interface, which nevertheless leaves the user spoiled for choice, allows selection based on content, age range, format, language, and even the color of the cover. It features a number of titles in over 60 different languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish and everything in between. Once selected, books are either downloaded onto your computer or presented in scanned form right on the website.

The homepage of the International Children's Digital Library is also very professionally put-together. Everything is very well organized and easy to find and use. Links for first-time visitors give a comprehensive overview of all the services the library offers and the "help" tab provides step-by-step instructions on how to search as well as FAQs.

The site does contain some drawbacks, however. Not all books located in searches are available for free on the web. Clicking on "Letters to the First Lady", for example, displays only a few sample pages and a link to buy the book. Additionally, while limited parts of the website can be viewed in 16 languages, the entire thing has only been translated into two (Spanish and Russian). Additionally, some languages (such a Niuean) contain only two or three books, and outdated (read: public domain) ones at that. Overall, however, the International Children's Digital Library is just so helpful and spot-on in its mission and execution that it deserves five stars. Recommended for kids grades K-6. ( )

The International Children's Digital Library is a free online database of children's books and materials from around the world and in a number of different languages. Developed by the University of Maryland, it is a great easy-to-use resource for children and adults, though the primary demographic is children ages 3 to 13.

The website makes use of fun, friendly colors, and is searchable in a lot of really neat ways. For example, kids can search for books based on the color of the cover, the length of books (short, medium, long), what the books are about, be it animals or people, and by the age of the intended audience, among others. These options are represented by intuitive graphics and in terms that make the most sense to kids. Instead of referring to books as being either fiction or non-fiction titles, the ICDL calls them "true books" and "make believe books."

Because of its size and broad scope, the ICDL is a valuable resources in communities where the local library doesn't have enough books in a particular language due to financial constraints, but there is a small population of users who speak that language. These users may be able to find something on the ICDL. Likewise, children and adults who are learning a foreign language could use this digital library to find simple books to read and with which to enhance their skills. ( )

The literary quality in this library is overall good but a little out dated. It offers children’s books from all around the world and in many different languages. The access to such a huge collection expands the reading arena for children. It is free, multilingual, and child-friendly. The collection in this digital library is big and the colorful layout of the webpage is attractive to children. It is easy to search books by clicking different buttons and choosing the language. It narrows the choice when one pushes down more buttons. In other words, children can do the search by themselves. It is very user-friendly and does not have a high demand for device compatibility. For the reading level, it is good for children aged from 3 to 13 and parents can read with them. Another feature of this library is that it is non-profit and there’s a “make a donation” button for people to contribute to constructing a better digital library. ( )