Public domain children's books

Every book, rhyme and story on Lil' Shelf is in the public domain. Here is what that means and how to find the good ones.

What the public domain is

In the UK, copyright lasts for the author's lifetime and seventy years after. When it runs out, the work belongs to everyone. Peter Rabbit, Alice, the Grimm tales and Mother Goose have all reached that point, so you are free to read them, print them and share them however you like.

This is how the system was always meant to work: a writer is paid for a lifetime, and then everyone benefits. Children's books do especially well out of it, because the best ones were written to be read aloud, and reading aloud never goes out of date.

Why old books suit small children

Beatrix Potter's watercolours have outlived every trend that was going to replace them, and a baby listening to Hush-a-bye on your lap does not mind when it was written. The classics have been read to a hundred years of children, and they are still very good at their job.

One honest note: old books carry the attitudes of their time. We read everything we publish and put a plain content note before the text wherever a parent would want a heads-up. We would rather flag too much than too little.

Where our copies come from

The texts come from Project Gutenberg, typed and proofread by volunteers over fifty years. The audio recordings we link are by LibriVox volunteers. The original illustrations are from public domain editions, checked against the illustrator's copyright as well as the author's. We tidy the texts, keep the pictures where the printer put them, and say where everything came from.

Free to read, free to keep

There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to buy. The books are already yours; we have just put them on a shelf. If you want to keep favourites, signing in is free too, and the shelf works offline once it is on your phone.

Start somewhere good

Browse by what your child is ready for, or dive into a kind of story:

To Lila. This site was made for you, to show you that people can just do nice things. It is for everyone who finds it too.