Family ebookshelf

Foster a lifelong love of stories and storytelling in children of all ages with our family-friendly ebookshelf!

The Library has a huge range of free ebooks – 200,000 and counting! – which you can either read online or download for up to seven days.

To get started, browse our latest selection of ebooks suited to children aged 12 and under. You can also scan our monthly curated ebookshelf for some reading of your own, or browse for even more free ebooks!

For tips and advice, read our Get started guide or watch our video on using ebooks.

To access ebooks from home, you need to be a State Library member with a Victorian home address. (Terms and conditions of use apply.)

The Right Move: An Autistic Boy Brings His Class Together Through the Game of Chess

Mooie's Stories: Malamiyayu Gurang, in the Dreamtime

Burwhela Ros Kneebone-Dodson

Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 2023

Age range 5 to 10 years

Dja Dja Wurrung Ancestors' stories as told to me by my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother before her.

How did Wabbee, the freshwater crayfish, get its bright red spots? Why does Wehla, the ringtail possum, have a curly tail? How were Waripi Yaluk, the backwaters of Bulatjal Yaluk Woodlar, the Loddon River, formed? Why does Yern, the moon, light up the night sky? Bunjil, the all-powerful, knows the answers. 'BurWhela' Ros Kneebone-Dodson learned these kiki - these stories of Malamiyayu Gurang, the Dreamtime - from her mother, Mooie.

BurWhela's words and images bring to vivid life these stories of her Ngurar Gurrk, her Ancestors, from Djandak, the Country of the Loddon River of Central Victoria. 'Our storytelling teaches how to live in harmony, how to care for and preserve the land and all living on it. It is lore for living'. - 'Burwhela' Ros Kneebone-Dodson

Space Pirates from Mars!

The Audrey of the Outback collection

Origami Insects: Easy & Fun Paper-Folding Projects

Bubbles On My Nose

All About Cars

It's True! Animals Are Electrifying

Rick Wilkinson and Mic Looby

Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2005

Age range 8 to 12 years

A book full of wonders, from snakes that can fly to eggs that can talk, from eels discharging 500 volts to lizards spurting blood from their eyes and chimps giving themselves medicine, plus a myriad other examples of animals superbly adapted to their environments. Psst! It's True! This is the best book on ANIMALS you'll ever read!

Did you know that fish can walk, snakes can fly and eggs can talk? What about the electric eel that could light up your house, or the lemur that every day eats enough poison to kill a dozen humans? Rick Wilkinson shows how animals adapt to their environment in bizarre and unexpected ways.

If you don't want to get spewed on by a sea bird, slashed by a mantis shrimp or slimed by a hagfish, you'd better read this book! Flummox your friends with these crazy creature features.