eBooks for Everyone!
Whether you have access to a computer, smart phone, tablet, or an e-reader, there are free eBooks available to read electronically. In fact, that’s why they’re called eBooks! Here is what you need to get started,so that you can havebooks available to read whenever and wherever you are!
eBooks on Destinyfeature fiction classics, graphic novels and nonfiction books. Just look for thewithin the Destiny catalog or click on FollettShelf at the top of the Destiny Quest screen.
- After logging into FollettShelf using your BCPS username and internal password, you can browse the eBooks that are available under the “Featured Collections” browser or the “Collections” pull-down, or you can search for a specific one that you want to read.
- You can also search for eBooks using the regular Destiny Quest catalog, and then click on “Open” in the Title Details screen for any individual book that is listed as an eBook (displays a little green “E” logoon the bottom right-hand side of the book’s cover).
- You can check out any available eBook for yourself by clicking on the Checkout button next to it.
- Some of the eBooks on FollettShelf on Destiny have a read aloud, text-to-speech feature. You can tell if the eBook that you have opened has this feature if you see this little speaker logo at the bottom right of the page.
If you click on this speaker button, you will hear a read-aloud of the page you have opened; however, keep in mind that the voice has a computer-style, robotic-sounding voice. (If you prefer more human sounding read-aloud voices, search for Audiobooks or PlayAways in Destiny or go to the TumbleBooks database, described at the bottom and on the back of this handout.)
General Directions for Using eBooks on Destiny from Home:To get started searching for an eBook on Destiny, go to and choose Perry Hall Middle School. You can then search the catalog for eBooks or go directly to FollettShelf. The Follett Shelf feature in Destiny, when reading on a computer, uses the BryteWaveK-12 Reader. There is also a mobile BryteWave app (called Follett BryteWave K-12 Edition) for reading these eBookson a device and/or downloading them onto smart phones and tablets. The BryteWave app is available for download from the App store or Google Play. You will need to pick our state (MD) and our school from the list when you first sign onto it. Our Follett Shelf URL, just in case you need it, is:
TumbleBooksCloudis a middle and high school collection of e-books, read-alongs, graphic novels, videos, and audiobooks that can be accessed online through BCPSOne (under the “Digital Content” button). Readers have the freedom to adjust the text size, line width and spacing, font style and color, the background color, and to highlight portions of a book and also add notes! Find it here –
You will need to sign in with school system IDs and Passwords to access these great e-bookswhen you are outside of school.Students have these ID’s and passwords on a page in their planners.
gr. 6-12gr. 3-6gr. K-5
Please note: TumbleBook CloudJunior is designated for grades 3-6 and Tumblebooks Cloud is designated for grades 6-12. On Tumblebooks Cloud, students in middle school can select the “Middle School” tab. Keep in mind that the “Teen” tab may contain some advanced texts on the TumbleBooks Cloud database.
The read-aloud features on Tumblebooksuse real human voices, not computer-style speech-to-text. On Tumblebook Cloud Jr., you can find the read-aloud books under the categories “Read Alongs” and “Audiobooks,” although no text will show on the screen for the audiobooks. On Tumblebooks Cloud, the read aloud books can be found under the categories “Enhanced Ebooks” and “Audiobooks.” Again, the audiobooks will be sound only, no text display.
Gale Virtual Reference Library has eBook reference titlesas well as many books from the DK Eyewitness series. Access to these eBooks is through the Destiny online library catalog or throughBCPSOne. Once a student is logged into BCPSOne, he/she can access this database under the “Digital Content”button.
ID and password to use this database from home is either available in the student’s planner or on a handout this is available in the school library.
World Book Advancedhas an eBook Center with more than 125,000 titles in many languages, from American classics to world literature. Available for download to a variety of devices, it can be accessed from BCPSOne under the “Digital Content”button.
ID and password to use this database from home is either available in the student’s planner or on a handout available in the school library.
Additional FREE E-Book Sources on the Internet
Baltimore Co. Public Libraryhas access to a large collection of current and popular eBooks and audiobooks that maybe checked out and downloaded to a variety of devices for reading and listening. You will need a BCPL library cardor SAIL card to check out eBooks. Browse the choices at
International Children’s Digital Libraryhas a collection of over 4500 free e-books in 61 languages, with users from over 220 countries. E-books can be searched by language, country, author, title or keywords. All titles have a summary and full color page reproduction, and many titles are multilingual. Explore a whole world of international children’s e-books at
Project Gutenberg is an ambitious project which aims to provide as many eBooks in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible! Books are available for download in many formats, and many have full color page reproduction. You can access their collection of children’s e-books here:
Lit2Gois a free online collection of children’s stories and poems in audio book (Mp3) format that also has the full text of selections. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages.
DigiLibrariesis a source of free eBooks that has a vast range of titles in digital format, and the collection is growing all the time. It has a mix of classics and recently published books. There are separate sections for Juvenile Fiction and Juvenile Nonfiction, with over 2500 titles just for kids.
6/2016