There’s a huge amount of German kids eBooks, audiobooks and magazines that can be gotten for free from publicly supported media sources or as part of common subscription services.
The top free resources for eBooks and digital magazines are Onleihe and Libby, while you can purchase eBooks and digital magazines through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
Onleihe is a German digital library resource, which you can sign up for with the Goethe Institut and gives you access to about 1700 eBooks, audiobooks and digital magazines for kids (20,000 total). Onleihe also has subscriptions to four popular magazines for kids: GEOlino Mini (ab 5), GEOlino (8-14), Dein SPIEGEL (8-14), Zeit LEO (ab 8). Anyone outside of Germany can sign up via the Goethe Institute here.
Libby: Local libraries make German ebooks and audiobooks available through the US-based Libby app. The selection is generally high quality and contemporary German content, but it is harder to navigate and the selection is usually on the small side. A recent search as an Seattle Public Library user showed about 150 German kids ebooks, mostly for older kids, and 180 German kids audiobooks, including well known titles for kids of all ages such as Winnie the Puh, Peppa the Pig, Gregs Tagebuch, and titles by Marc-Uwe King, Kerstin Gier, and Cornelia Funke. You sign up for Libby by submitting your credentials from your home library. Some libraries also have German-language digital magazines via Libby. For example, the King County Library System has 132 magazine titles in German, including all the top titles you would know from a German newsstand.
Hoopla is another great library resource for streaming audio and video content. It works with a ticket system, where you start each month with a certain number of tickets (as determined by your library) and can allocate them as you wish. Hoopla provides access to lots of German music as well as audio books and plays (Hörbücher and Hörspiele) for kids and adults.
You can access high quality audiobooks, podcasts and music for kids on the ARD Audiothek (link). ARD is a public broadcasting network like PBS in the US, so its sites are both free to use and ad-free. You can use it with various devices or move content to a dedicated audioplayer for your child, such as a Tonie or Yotoplayer (device reviews). The only downside is that the interface is in German, so it can be challenging to navigate if you are not a confident German speaker.
Spotify: You can also find a large selection of high quality, popular kids audiobooks and music on Spotify, including classics like Bibi Blocksberg and Benjamin Blümchen. Here are a few sample lists; below you will find links to Spotify next to recommended titles as available.
Audiobook Playlist for Kids 3 and up
Audiobook Playlist for Kids 6 and up
Audiobook Playlist for Kids 8 and up
Amazon and Barnes & Noble can also be good resources, if you know exactly what you are searching for. For example, you can access the German version of songs from Disney’s Elsa and a kids album by the popular singer Helene Fischer (link to German-language kids albums on Amazon Music).
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