“Non visual” living books?

Maybe those classroom, large books that teacher’s use for group teaching? Lakeshore Learning .  com has some. Look for classic stories which will be more living.

Otherwise, can you use ebooks and enlarge the print?

Hope this helps!

When they are older, reading (or listening to audio books) of The History of US  might be good.  Have you tried Winnie-the-Pooh? There’s a good audio version through the BBC where a different actor reads each part so it’s easier to distinguish characters.  Maybe the Mercy Watson series of books.  Maybe offering a 3-D object you’re reading about for hands on perception?  That’s a tough one.  I’ll keep thinking.

That is really tough, having never had the pleasure of working with a blind child.  What about Patricia Polacco, she has beautiful picture books but the stories I think could stand alone.  The Little House books come to mind.  The Boxcar Children, or the Milly Molly Mandy books. Stories based more in reality might be easier to follow.  It am trying to think of some of the books my son enjoyed when he was that age.  He can see, but he never sat next to me when reading so he never enjoyed any of the illustrations. The Cricket in Times Square or Mr. Poppers Penguins.  I hope you find something wonderful to read to them.

Science is a tough one. It seems like science would have lots of pictures at that age. Or descriptions of things of which they may have  no frame of reference. What about the Burgess books or the Among the… books. Or something like Archimedes and the Door of Science. Snowflake Bentley is great, but without being able to see the snowflake… I think I would try to stick with scientist biographies like Ordinary Genius. It would touch on inventions and such but not get too technical and go over their heads. There are lots of Wright Brothers stories for littles that might be engaging and touch on some scientific principles. You might let them handle things while you read about what they are touching. You could easily do different plants and flowers that way. They could handle petals while you talked about what petals are for, stems, leaves, etc. You could do different rocks that way. Bird feathers. Bugs. Feeling a chicken bone before and after being soaked in vinegar, why they get soft.

Oh sorry. These are old books by Clara Dillingham Pierson

Among the Forest People

Among the Pond People

Among the Meadow People

Nature stories for young kids about creatures of the various habitats. They are very sweet and engaging. Some fun animal facts sprinkled throughout. My kids loved the Pond people best.

These are “picture books” but all the story is there without pictures, and they retain their beauty and charm:

Georgia Music by Helen V. Griffith

Baby in a Basket by Gloria Rand

The Hickory Chair by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (this is one of my all time favorites, and the narrator/main character is blind)

Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane by Roni Schotter

Amos & Boris by William Steig

Mice Twice by Joseph Low

Huge Harold by Bill Peet

Fables by Arnold Lobel

A Toad for Tuesday by Russell E Erickson (a little longer)

I think this one would still be interesting: Grasshopper on the Road by Lobel (you may need to describe the size of the mosquito)

Chapter books:

We just listened to ‘Freddy and the Poppin Jay’ in the car. We really enjoyed it! This book has a lot of details, so maybe hold off if Charlotte’s Web was still a challenge.)

We first heard ‘The Secret Garden’ as an audio book.

For fun:

Jungle Jam (a radio program). Completely heavy handed, but silly. My kiddos enjoy it.