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Epic! is a name now synonymous with children's reading material as this is one of the largest digital libraries for younger readers in the world. And with new titles added weekly, this is growing bigger and bigger at a fast pace.
While this is fine for use at home, via a wide range of digital devices, it can also be used by teachers for education purposes. In fact, the app is so well developed that it now integrates well with the likes of Google Classroom to help make that teaching process even more straightforward.
This platform isn't a simple library alone though. You can also track progress, so teachers and parents can see how a child is doing with a book. Usefully, there is also a built-in dictionary so kids can check and learn new words to help make learning and reading a more independent process.
Since Epic! is a child-specific platform, it's very safe and secure with content that is targeted and age appropriate. The books are a mix of Epic! original content and digital versions of already-published works.
Epic! is always adding news books and videos for students of varying ages so it's worth checking in regularly to see what's appeared. You can also subscribe to the company's newsletter to get updates sent right to your inbox.
The company says this is now the world's largest digital library for kids, with more than 40,000 books, audiobooks, learning videos, and other options. So getting updates to help you get the best of all that could be useful.
Epic! works like a digital library. Students can get access to the books they want and read when they like. They can also have their own accounts in which they build up a reading list and rate titles. This leads to personalization of content to help them discover new books and progress though their learning journey.
Once a teacher account is started, it's possible to create accounts for each student. The ability to load in a roster makes this quicker and easier than doing it all manually. Teachers can assign reading based on ability, age, category, and more.
Epic! uses reading levels and age markers as ways to help find titles for students to read. This not only helps in the setting of work, by teachers, but also in the tracking of student progress through the varying levels.
Since this is a digital platform, access to the content is simple both on individual devices, in class and remotely, as well as on a smartscreen. By putting the book on a big screen, the class can read along together.
The quiz feature uses multiple choice questions to help students further integrate what they've read. This also acts as a useful assessment tool for teachers, though currently, the number of quizzes is fairly low. Perhaps a dedicated quiz creation tool such as SurveyMonkey can help here.
You can download and print monthly calendars with activity for both in the class and at home. A customizable reading challenge is available for offering badges and digital prizes to help encourage student reading.
Epic School is also free but offers students reading in class time. In this case, the teacher uses the dashboard for tracking reading, as opposed to the parent in the Free variant. This version also includes learning videos and audiobooks.
Research projects
Use Epic! to carry out mini research projects in the class. Have students pick a non-fiction title and then report back on what they've learned. Since many books can be listened to, this even works for younger students.
Luke Edwards is a freelance writer and editor with more than two decades of experience covering tech, science, and health. He writes for many publications covering health tech, software and apps, digital teaching tools, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and much more.
Epic School Plus: a school subscription that offers students and teachers 24/7 access to over 40,000 books. With Read-To-Me books, audiobooks, educational videos & interactive features, we make reading and learning fun for every kid.
Epic offers personalized recommendations to your student and refines recommendations the more your student reads. Imagine having a virtual library perfectly tailored to your child's reading level and interests available at your fingertips!
Designed for unlimited discovery and unmatched safety, Epic is the leading digital reading platform for kids. Built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books, audiobooks and videos from 250+ of the world's best publishers, Epic reaches more than 75 million kids in homes and classrooms and fuels curiosity and reading confidence. Epic has made access free to educators and more than 2 million teachers use it in the classroom. Epic is part of the BYJU'S family of brands, working together to unlock a love of learning around the world. To learn more, visit getepic.com, or follow Epic on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.
Teachers benefit from the library of books on Epic because, in schools without enough books, students can check out ebooks online for reading for fun or for about specific topics and themes. Teachers can see, just like parents can, what books the students are reading and their progress. Even better, Epic! is free for teachers when school is physically in session.
Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.
For emergent readers and second language learners, the Unite Books app is an alternative that is always free for everyone. There are more than 500 mostly nonfiction picture books, narrated in 50 languages, in the app. The books are also available online at No logins, games or ads, just great, diverse, narrated picture books.
Use Epic! - Kids' Books and Videos as you would use a library. Students can read books that interest them during silent reading or free choice time. They can build their own collections, rate what they've read, and then report back to the teacher offline with a summary or a reflection on what they learned or liked about the book. Teachers can assign a theme (for example, biographies of important people in history) and let students find and read material on that theme. Or teachers can assign specific books based on reading level or by topic to get students investigating a particular subject or literature theme. Teachers can check on each student's progress through the dashboard. Given that this is a digital library, teachers also can project the book onto a smartboard and read to the class. After reading, follow up with related activities. Concepts of plot, theme, character development, and so on can follow a work of fiction. Historical reenactments, videos, reports, or further research can deepen learning after reading a nonfiction book. To help with assessment, teachers can use the limited number of books that have multiple-choice quizzes already, or write and post their own to the community.
Make sure to check out Epic!'s expansive collection of educator resources: tons of helpful stuff that's clearly made with educator input, from getting started guides to monthly themed calendars to handouts for parents and lesson plans. There are also video tutorials that go over all of the tool's key features.
Epic! - Kids' Books and Videos is a digital library and e-reader website and app that makes more than 40,000 children's books (with more added weekly) available at the touch of a finger. When signing up for a free educator account, teachers indicate the age of their students and a few areas of interest so that the app can target which titles to suggest. Those choices can always be changed later, and teachers can also search through the entire catalog whenever they want. Teachers can set up separate accounts for students, either by hand or by linking to a Google Classroom account. Once accounts are set up, teachers can assign books or entire collections to one or more students and track what they've read. Students sign in with a unique code to browse or read what's been assigned.
Books are Epic! originals and digital versions of actually published books, including some popular ones such as The Magic School Bus, National Geographic Kids, or A Series of Unfortunate Events. There's a built-in Merriam-Webster's dictionary that's written accessibly for kids; tap and hold on any word to see its definition. Some books have a read-to-me option (featuring an actual, vs. digitized, voice and word highlighting), while others are only for traditional solo reading. There are also books available solely in audiobook form. Along with books are short educational videos, multiple-choice comprehension quizzes, badges to be earned, and other features to encourage engagement, customize experiences, and track students' activity. Teachers and students can sign in on an unlimited number of devices, including on a web browser. Books also can be downloaded for offline reading to allow students to read without a Wi-Fi connection.
Though the appeal and satisfaction of holding a physical book in your hands can't be beat, it can be costly and time-consuming to build and maintain a library -- not to mention that it takes up a lot of precious space! Epic! - Kids' Books and Videos offers teachers an incredibly appealing (and free!) compromise with its huge collection of high-quality, high-interest book titles (including titles in Spanish, French, and Chinese). The library is, in fact, so big that it can be initially overwhelming to navigate it. The web version allows users to search by age, but the app doesn't, which can be frustrating. On both platforms, areas of interest and search fields can help narrow things down, though it may take a little getting used to to figure out how to find exactly what you're looking for.
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