Everything to know about Epic! books
Wondering about Epic! books? Here’s everything you need to know about this book subscription for kids and families. Plus, you can try it for free for a week here!
When all the libraries shut down in March, I was instantly on the hunt for sources for books that didn’t include buying them all myself.
Top of my list was Epic! books which we’ve had a subscription to on and off for years!
If you’re unfamiliar with Epic!, it’s the largest digital library for children 12 and under with more than 40,000 titles.
It’s an amazing tool for families with multiple readers, all at different reading levels! It’s also a great resource for summer or homeschooling!
Here’s everything to know about Epic!
Everything to know about Epic! books
If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for digital books and audiobooks, Epic! is hands-down your best choice.
A digital library subscription is only as good as the content there and the content on Epic! is incredible.
There are classic picture books and popular series and non-fiction titles and reference books and activity and craft books. Basically, there is something for everyone.
They also have different formats – there are books to read, audiobooks to listen to, video content, and even read-to books, where you can see the pages of the books and the app will read it out loud to you while you look at the pictures.
These read-to-me books are one of the things I get asked about all the time, and nobody has a better read along collection than Epic!
They also have a huge selection of Epic Original books you cannot find anywhere else!
Finding Books on Epic!
I love how EASY to navigate Epic! is – they’ve really created an amazing user experience and you can search for books all sorts of different ways.
You can search by format like poetry, activity books, comic books or picture books. They also have tons of fiction AND non-fiction, so if you have a child who leans toward one of those more than the other, you’ll be covered.
You can also find books categorized by series, popularity, topics like animals or space or friendship, and dozens of other categories.
The books are also leveled according to several of the most popular leveling systems, including AR, DRA, F&P, GRL, Lexile, and, of course, grade levels. So if your school uses a particular reading level system, it’s very easy to sort for other books at their level.
You can favorite any books and you can also hide any title so that it’s never recommended to you again.
Tracking reading in Epic!
There is a pretty robust tracking system in Epic! that records all the books your child has read in the Epic! library, plus will track the number of hours and number of books read.
You can also unlock achievements for different reading activities which is really fun for my girls.
Even better, you can make multiple profiles within one account so you can easily have children of different ages use it.
Using Epic! Books
You can use Epic! on a computer, a phone, or a tablet and they have dedicated (free) apps for both IOS and Android devices.
One of the most common questions I get about Epic! is whether you can use it on an Amazon Fire Kids Tablet and sadly, the answer is no. They discontinued support for it a while ago, so you’ll need a different device for it.
HOW MUCH DOES EPIC BOOKS COST?
Unfortunately, Epic Books isn’t free, but they do offer a free 7-day trial so you can try it out before subscribing! After that, the cost of Epic Books is $11.99 a month or $79.99 annually, which breaks down to being $6.67 a month! Definitely a cost savings I would jump on.
Any other questions about Epic books that I didn’t answer? I’m happy to try to answer and help you get the most out of Epic! It’s such an amazing tool for families!
I love that you can go into settings and even turn off the video content if you want. My son had a subscription through his class last year. It has ended now, but we still use it on a free plan where he can read up to 2 hours a week. Some books aren’t available, they require a membership, but there’s been enough for free we haven’t bothered with a membership yet. We still don’t have ANY subscription services for our family (no Prime, Disney+, Netflix, cable, nada). So I’m always happy to see a free, even if reduced, version.
We got a subscription through our public school when we switched to remote learning last spring. One thing I found frustrating is that we couldn’t zoom in on the words. Sometimes the type was very small for my 5 year old to read. We still loved it and used it every day. They had a great selection of really quality books and my son liked doing quizzes at the end.
Yes you can just double tap the screen
This may sound stupid… Do they have chapter books? All I saw on your list was picture books, activity books, comic books… 😅
They do!
My kids have been using Epic via the school account ever since school shut down in March and they are OBSESSED. I would absolutely pay full price if I had to. They are particularly into the read-aloud books, and love to listen to them together! They are both boys, 6 and 9, and there are awesome options for each of them. My only question is do you know if it possible to download books for offline use?
You can download them for offline use! https://getepic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205484365-Can-I-read-books-offline-
I need to know how many books you read until you level up. Do you know?
I have that same exact question!!!
What are the epic levels? My daughter is a level 13- flip Meister. What does this mean?
it means she did good in the book
What determines the “level” you are? Is it number of books read? Time spent reading? Does the level of book matter?
thanks!
Hi! Do you know if the quizzes at the end of the “read to me” books can also be read to them. I teach kindergarten they are excited about taking quiz but aren’t able to read the questions on their own.
How does Epic books count books for reading. My son’s been stuck at 26 books although he is reading and not having the books read to him
Are you able to download audiobooks for Yoto using Epic?
As far as I’m aware, no.