Free history stories for kids
Tap a book to see which story is inside it.
Tap a book to see what's inside.
Or start with Ruby Goes to SchoolPicking one for your child
Every story here is sorted by Peabody's reading level, which is worked out from the text and never from the child. A lower level means shorter sentences and easier words, so start where your child can read about half of a story alone and read the rest together. If it is too hard, go down a level. If they race through it, go up.
For growing readers
9 are at levels 5 to 9: Ruby Goes to School, The First Flight, The Four Big Pages, The Thread That Glowed, The Run to Nome, Twelve Seconds at Kitty Hawk and more. Longer stories, with more going on in each one.
For confident readers
27 are at levels 10 to 18: The Bus Boycott, The Great Fire of London, How Did a Patent Examiner Change Physics?, How Did Two Bicycle Makers Learn to Fly?, Who Invented the Light Bulb?, Trouble on Apollo 13 and more. These are for children who read chapters and longer passages on their own.
Reading them together
A grown-up can read any of these aloud from a phone or tablet, one page at a time, and a child who reads can take over. Where a device can speak, the story page has a Read to me button that reads each page aloud in the device's own voice. Every story page has a Print link too, if you would rather read on paper.
More free stories
- The whole library: free stories by reading level, no account needed.
- Classic stories retold short: fables, fairy tales, myths and legends.
- Free nonfiction books for kids, one topic at three levels
- Free Greek myths for kids
- Free folk tales, tall tales and legends for kids
- Free short stories for 4th graders
- By level: Level 5 · Level 7 · Level 8 · Level 9 · Level 10 · Level 11 · Level 12 · Level 13 · Level 14 · Level 15 · Level 16 · Level 17 · Level 18
Questions parents ask
What reading level are these history stories?
They run across levels 5 to 18. Peabody works each level out from the story's text: how long the sentences are, how many words fit on a screen and how common the words are. The table shows the level of every story, so you can pick a lower or a higher one.
Are any of these stories scary?
None carries a mark above gentle, and none is on the scary stories shelf. The short description on each story's page says what it covers, so read it first if your child is sensitive.
Do the stories cost anything?
No. Every story on this page is free to read through the end of 2026, with no account and no card.
Teacher? Share this page to Google Classroom. Children open it with no sign-up.
Checked against how Peabody works on 19 October 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher. How Peabody's pages are made.