Free braille books:
Free is a no-brainer, so sign up if you haven’t already:
- Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) & American Printing House (APH) for the blind have teamed up on the Braille Tales Print/Braille Book Program. Sign up for free books in the mail (Ages 0-6). By the way, be sure find out if DPIL serves your area with free books for your sighted kids–they really do a good job of selecting excellent books.
- American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults have a Free Braille Books Program. You can get a free book a month for grades K-2, or a book every other month for grades 3-6. Enroll online here.
- National Braille Press (NBP) Free Braille Bag. Read all about the Braille Bag here, and then fill out the online form to get yours in the mail. It includes one free print/braille book, you choose between age 0–3, 4–5, or 6–7. (Ages 0–7)
- Braille Institute’s Special Collection free braille book program for any visually impaired child in USA or Canada. Catalogs come out twice a year and you can order up to 8 books a year. Just e-mail or call to start getting catalogs. (Ages 2 through high school)
- Seedlings Book Angel Program. Re-register each year to choose which books you’d like and you can get 3 free braille books a year (Ages 0–21). They also have two other free programs for world book encyclopedia articles and for residents of Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. Finally, they are a great source for buying braille books too.
- Sharebraille.org lets you pass on your braille books when you are done with them, and request books from others who are ready to pass them on. Shipping is no-cost under USPS “Free Matter for the Blind”.
Braille books to borrow:
- In the US, your Regional Library for the Blind will send you braille books, large print, books, or audio books as you request through the mail, and send you more once you send them back. All free. Look up your regional library for the blind here to get started. This is a great free resource, but also can be a bit difficult to get exactly what you want. Our regional library doesn’t yet have many books in UEB and I’ve found it challenging to get books at the right reading level for my daughter.
- Braille Library & Transcribing Service. I’ve just learned about this Madison Wisconsin non-profit serving US and Canada but it seems like a great resource. I’m going to try it out. You can borrow books for them for free through the mail, much like a regional library for the blind, buy any of their library books, or have material custom transcribed.
Braille books to buy:
- National Braille Press (NBP)
- They’ve got a bookstore with a range of books for kids
- Children’s Book Club: $100 annual subscription sends you a book a month in the mail. These are original books with braille added, so you get all the original pictures with the braille. This is a pretty good deal for 12 kids books and your sighted kids will love them too. These are mostly books for a parent to read to a child, not books for a child to read to themselves.
- Seedlings is a wonderful non-profit with a great catalog of braille books. Check them out.
- Braille Bookstore is another good resource for braille book shopping.
- Braille Library & Transcribing Service sells the books in their lending library.
- Beulah Reimer Legacy sells print picture books with braille added to them, a good option for children learning braille who still love pictures.
Digital Books for Refreshable Braille Displays
- I’ll get to this later
Audio Books
- I’ll get to this later