20 Public Domain Children’s Books

The novel series following an orphan girl sent to a small community in Prince Edward Island has been adapted and celebrated for over a hundred years. In fact, the Netflix show Anne with an E is a favorite among my students. Six of the eight novels in the series are available through public domain. In addition, the first two books in Montgomery’s less famous, but equally charming, series Emily of New Moon are now available though the public domain. The third Emily book will enter the public domain in 2023. But we’ll have to wait longer for the final two Anne of Green Gables books, because they weren’t published until the 1930s.

Comedic and moralistic, this story of anthropomorphic animals has been delighting children for over a hundred years. It is made up of several short stories following the adventures of animals who live along a river bank in the English countryside. Mr. Toad (and his wild ride) is probably the most famous because of the Disney adaptation. The story was also adapted as musical by Julian Fellows, the creator of Downton Abbey.

All of Louisa May Alcott’s novels are in the public domain. But none is as beloved as this story of the four March sisters growing up in Massachusetts during the Civil War. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy all have different personalities and dreams. But they all love and support each other. And I think those sisterly bonds are what have been making generations of young readers fall in love with these characters and this book.

First published in 1883, this much-adapted novel is a true adventure story. Jim Hawkins is a young boy who finds himself in possession of a treasure map. He hires a crew to help him find the treasure, but they turn out to be a gang of pirates instead of regular sailors. Many of the tropes of pirates we see in media today originate in this story. This is especially true in the depiction of the villain, Long John Silver.

Mary Lennox returns to England from India after losing both of her parents to Cholera. She has a hard time adjusting to the gloomy Yorkshire estate where her uncle and guardian lives. But everything changes when she finds an abandoned, walled off garden and decides to bring it back to life. Published in 1910, this book is in the public domain. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s other famous book for children, A Little Princess, was published five years earlier and is also available under public domain laws.

After doing some research, I believe the novel version Peter Pan is available through public domain because it was published in 1911. The original play version is less certain. Still, there is room to adapt the story that is rich with magic and adventure. The story begins with Peter Pan tempting the Darling children to Neverland, a magical place where children don’t have to grow up.

Twenty-three of the 24 Peter Rabbit books are in the public domain. However, the characters and images still have a trademark on them. This time it isn’t Disney’s fault. In fact, Potter refused Disney’s offer to make a film adaptations in 1936. Peter Rabbit is the oldest trademarked character through a deal to make stuffed animals based on him in 1903. We can read about him and Jemima Puddle-Duck and Benjamin Bunny. But copying their images is much trickier business.

This book has an interesting origin story. The author is the wife of legendary editor Max Perkins, who discovered Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe. It is unusual for a book to have so many colorful illustrations from this time period. The story is told in play format. And it tells a secret story behind the nursery rhyme from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Winnie the Pooh won’t enter the public domain until next year…but A.A. Milne’s second book for children enters this year, joining his first book When We Were Very Young. These stories don’t have the lovable characters Milne is known for, but instead are short vignettes based on the illustrations. They do get into the mindset of what childhood meant for society in the 1910s and ’20s.

The Danish author Hans Christian Anderson wrote many beloved children’s fairytales. Stories like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and more. Altogether, he wrote 156 fairy tales that are all in the public domain. While the stories are available for use, certain more recent translations may still be under copyright. And character art that comes directly from movies or more recent illustrations are probably not available for use either.

I loved paging through my mother’s childhood copy of this book when I was a kid. Andrew Lang created 12 collections of fairytales for children from 1889 to 1910. This is the first one, with familiar retellings of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Bluebeard, and may more. Because it was the first book in the series, it has some of the most well known fairytales borrowing from the Grimm brothers, Madame d’Aulnoy, and the Arabian Nights tales. The future books all are named after colors, such as The Red Fairy Book and The Green Fairy Book. They are all available under public domain as well.

This collection of Nordic and Norweigan tales was first published in 1914. It includes The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the famous title story, and less well-known fairytales from the region. While the stories can be a little repetitive, the illustrations in this edition are so haunting and beautiful. I feel like a broken record, but again — different translators from different editions may be in or out of the public domain. But the stories and images have been in the public domain for some time.

Originally published in 1881, the Pepper family has five kids and a widowed mother who struggles to take care of them all. It’s definitely one of those heartwarming poverty books that might feel a little cliched and moralistic today. But it mixes comedic childhood antics with sentimental tragic hardships. The fact that it is still in print today shows how many people remember it fondly from their childhood.

When five siblings start digging and messing around in a gravel pit, the last thing they expect to unearth is a sand fairy. The cantankerous ancient being can grant them one wish a day. But they soon learn getting all five siblings to agree on one wish is a difficult task. And the wishes don’t always turn out as amazing as they originally imagined.