Free Chinese Audiobooks for Kids to Learn Mandarin
Building a Chinese home library can be costly and challenging for bilingual families in the United States. Thankfully, many websites and apps offer free Mandarin Chinese books for kids. Free Mandarin Chinese audiobooks have helped families like ours raise multilingual children, and I’m excited to share our favorites!
Apps with free Mandarin Chinese audiobooks for kids
Chinese audiobook apps are a convenient way to get extra Mandarin input into the day, such as during the drive to and from school. These audiobook apps have Chinese interfaces, making them an ideal option for parents who can read Chinese.
咔哒故事 Kada Gushi
咔哒故事 Kada Gushi was one of the first Mandarin storybook apps when my children were toddlers. The audiobook app features tons of well-known stories with simplified Chinese captions. The interface has images of familiar storybook characters, allowing kids to tap on the audiobook they want to hear. Some stories are free, while others require a subscription fee.
Age: Toddler to middle school
Related: The Best Educational Apps to Learn Chinese
凯叔讲故事 Uncle Kai Stories
凯叔讲故事 has lots of free Mandarin Chinese audiobooks for children, such as the Journey to the West Monkey King series. We enjoy listening to Uncle Kai’s engaging voice and the ability to search stories by age. Like other Chinese audiobook apps, some stories require a subscription fee.
Age: Toddler to middle school
Himalaya Chinese Stories
Himalaya, the international version of the Ximalaya app, has been our family’s favorite resource for Chinese audiobooks. They have the professional narration of bestselling chapter books like Harry Potter 哈利·波特 and Mi Xiao Quan 米小圈.
While the original app used to have thousands of free Chinese audiobooks, Himalaya offers a complimentary 7-day trial as a preview to an annual subscription. To use this app, you should be able to understand conversational Mandarin. Caregivers must also read and type Chinese characters to find the best stories.
Age: Children and adults
Websites with free Mandarin Chinese audiobooks
The following Mandarin audiobook websites are helpful for families who cannot read Chinese. These websites either have English translations, or you can use the Google Translate Chrome extension to translate all the characters.
Little Fox Chinese
Little Fox Chinese is a free language learning curriculum for beginner to advanced levels. Level one begins with pinyin, basic words, and daily expressions and progresses to longer sentences through animated stories. The program provides hundreds of free Chinese audiobooks and songs through its website, app, and YouTube channel.
If you’re trying to minimize screen time like our family, you can print and add the books to your home library.
Age: Toddler to elementary school
听故事说中文 Learning Chinese Through Stories
This fantastic website is dedicated to Chinese language learners. Their Mandarin stories are categorized into novice, intermediate, and advanced proficiency levels. The narrators teach common Chinese vocabulary and idioms in the context of stories. The stories have keyword definitions, Pinyin pronunciation, and English translations.
On the website, many of the older stories are free, while paid subscribers can unlock newer content.
Age: Children to adults
Try this: 15 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Read
僑教雙週刊 Huayu World
Huayu World is a Taiwanese website that offers free Chinese audiobooks for children. The site features stories on various topics, including everyday life, Chinese festivals, idioms, and fiction.
The website is entirely traditional Chinese, and the stories have Zhuyin next to the Chinese characters. When viewing the Chinese stories, you can choose to have the illustrations or the Chinese words enlarged.
Age: Toddler to middle school
Recommended: Fun and Free Educational Websites for Kids
Best Chinese audiobook player for kids
If you want to maximize hands-on reading and minimize screen time, I strongly recommend the Luka Reading Robot!
Luka Reading Companion is a Mandarin audiobook player that narrates popular children’s books aloud, page by page. If your budget has room for kid-friendly gadgets, Luka can help your children listen to Chinese stories independently.
Age: Toddler to elementary school
Which Mandarin Chinese audiobooks are your favorite for kids?
Please share your review and recommendation in the comments below. We’d love to learn from your experience.
I am so grateful for your list of resources. I am an ESL teacher working with two students newly arrived from China. I was having a difficult time finding resources in both English and simplified Chinese, and I am excited to share these with my students.
I’m so happy to hear that these resources are helpful! Thank you for sharing them with your students, and thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with me.
Thank you so much for sharing this information!
Hi Betty, thanks for all the info. Just wondering if you found any further Korean language apps/websites that are helpful for beginning students. Any help appreciated!
Thanks!
Thank you for this valuable information. I will definitely use Storybooks Canada with my students. I couldn’t find any Mandarin stories on Unite for LIteracy, am I doing something wrong? I went thru written languages and narration languages. Maybe you could let me know where to look, thank you in advance
Thanks for reaching out! In the Unite for Literacy Website, check the “Narration” tab for language options. The only written language options are English and Spanish, but they have audio for many more languages including Chinese 中文. Hope that helps!
Hello.
I work with young adults who become involved in the justice system. Recently I have come in contact with a 17 year old Burmese refugee boy. He is not proficient in English, and present as quite uncomfortable with the western culture. I would like to furnish him young adult books in Kerrani/Kareni. Any suggestions as to where I can purchase such books?
I have another good app to introduce for you：）
1. 喜马拉雅儿童
It is just for child. It’s better than ximalaya app.
2.wawayaya (爱读家)
This app for foreign language learner to study Chinese.
A lot of good book form sigapore.
Thank you so much for your recommendations!
This is so inspiring..
Thank you for sharing. We really need this for sure..
Thank you so much for sharing.
You’re welcome!