Are we ready for winter? It usually comes faster here in Alaska than it does in the rest of the US...I'm getting ready to do lots of reading during the cold winter months. If you have an e-book reader, Kindle, Nook or one of the many others on the market, there are tons of free books available to download, and you can even read them on the family computer. Usually the free books are older books, but may be new to you. Most of the books that I recommend are available in hardback, softbound and e-books.

Richard Scarry's Christmas Mice
by Richard Scarry

In this Richard Scarry Christmas classic, read about two little mice who've discovered the candy, dolls, and even a race car that Santa brought. But did Santa leave anything for the two little mice? Charming illustrations digitally restored to their original brilliance.

My Bibi Always Remembers
by Toni Buzzeo (Author), Mike Wohnoutka (Illustrator)

This tribute to grandmothers will make a perfect read-aloud with touching family moments.Little Tembo, a baby elephant, is thirsty and her herd cannot find any water. But Bibi, the matriarch, "remembers the way to wet." As Bibi leads them across the parched savannah, Tembo happily follows, every now and then getting distracted by games she loves to play.

Anybody Shining
by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Can one mistake destroy the chance of a lifetime? A girl discovers there are many ways of being true in this magnificent ode to handwritten letters and the shining power of friendship from the author of .

One true friend. Someone shining. That’s all twelve-year-old Arie Mae wants. But shining true friends are hard to come by deep in the mountains of western North Carolina, so she sets her sights on a cousin unseen, someone who lives all the way away in the big city of Baltimore, Maryland. Three unanswered letters later, Arie Mae learns that a group of kids from Baltimore are coming to spend a summer on the mountain.

Pack of Dorks
by Beth Vrabel

Lucy knows that kissing Tom Lemmings behind the ball shed will make her a legend. But she doesn’t count on that quick clap of lips propelling her from coolest to lamest fourth grader overnight. Suddenly Lucy finds herself trapped in Dorkdom, where a diamond ring turns your finger green, where the boy you kiss hates you three days later, where your best friend laughs as you cry, where parents seem to stop liking you, and where baby sisters are born different

Clarity (Blood Haze #4)
by Tara Shuler

Dmitri has become a very real threat to Alice and those she loves most. Now that he has taken the talisman, the Council has no idea what he has planned. But they must find out, and quickly! To bring about his plan… Alice must die.

With her life in danger and the Council running out of time, Alice discovers the darkness that had burrowed its way inside her when she practiced dark magic is still there, lurking deep inside her, chomping its way through her and aching to explode forth.

Can they keep Alice safe from the manic that intends to take her life to bring forth his dastardly plan? And how can they defeat the powerful Dmitri now that he has the talisman, when Alice can no longer make use of her abilities?

Alice, Alexi, Liam, Kai, Max, Jamie, Will, and many more must join forces to stop him before it’s too late, and before Alice is lost forever.

Skink--No Surrender
by Carl Hiaasen

Classic Malley—to avoid being shipped off to boarding school, she takes off with some guy she met online. Poor Richard—he knows his cousin’s in trouble before she does. Wild Skink—he’s a ragged, one-eyed ex-governor of Florida, and enough of a renegade to think he can track Malley down. With Richard riding shotgun, the unlikely pair scour the state, undaunted by blinding storms, crazed pigs, flying bullets, and giant gators.

Carl Hiaasen first introduced readers to Skink more than twenty-five years ago in Double Whammy, and he quickly became Hiaasen’s most iconic and beloved character, appearing in six novels to date. Both teens and adults will be thrilled to catch sight of the elusive “captain” as he finds hilariously satisfying ways to stop internet predators, turtle-egg poachers, and lowlife litterbugs in their tracks. With Skink at the wheel, the search for a missing girl is both nail-bitingly tense and laugh-out-loud funny.

TIPS FOR WRITERS:

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