Sora, by OverDrive Education Reviews

I only recently got SorabyOverDriveEducation and I’m hoping to be proven wrong but right off the bat I see some issues. For one, even though they have access to your clever account, which I believe has your grade and lexile score, I was recommended books for 3rd graders despite being in 7th grade. And even the books that were “on level” had lexile less than a thousand and-age counts not reaching 200. My lexile score for the record was 1413.

This is the thing I have the most trouble with on kids websites. They seem to assume all of us are below average and group 5th graders in with kindergarteners in reading level. The next thing is the “fantasy” section. I have read many a book in this genre written in the last decade. So why are all the books on the websites not? I know old books can be good, but by now the writing pales in comparison to modern books that actually engage the reader. I can name hundreds of modern fantasy books yet they don’t have a single decent one.

I’m not sure how this works, and if it’s a problem with the rights and copyright and stuff that’s fine, but please make your system see what grade and lexile score your on. No dignified 7th grader is going to be caught dead reading “Spongebob: Surfs Up!”

I’ll start out by saying I love SorabyOverDriveEducation. As a huge reader I found it really useful to have my entire school library on my phone. One thing is if I was waiting for a hold, I wouldn’t find out my hold was ready until I opened SorabyOverDriveEducation to read something else. I think it would be really useful to have notifications that would send out to alert you when a hold was ready or when it was almost time to take a book back. Other than that, it’s a perfect app for students like me who love reading on their phones. I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t like reading as much because their are audiobooks as well as ebooks. Anyway please look into the notifications thing and thank you for your time!

Pros: Feels authentic Books read from electronics No need to go to the library Audio books
Cons: Hold placements: why do you need hold placements on an electronic book app? The book isn’t exactly an object you picked up from the library. It feels like SorabyOverDriveEducation could have accomplished so much more is this wasn’t a feature. Electronic books should not have a checkout line.
Interface: the interface is glitchy at worst, an annoyance at best.
Sampling: when I sample a book I have to return to where I found the book instead of just being able to borrow it right then and there In all, I feel like SorabyOverDriveEducation should be an alternative if someone has already borrowed the book you were after in the library, it shouldn’t function as if it were a library itself, at least not with the extreme downsides of the library

Sora is a nice app but however, it has issues. My child was obsessed with reading on Sora when her school introduced it to her, so she read a lot everyday. However, when she opened Sora a few days later, when she wanted to borrow a book, it said, ‘You checked out and returned too many titles in a short time please try again later.’ I would get that if she did NOT return the titles, but that makes no sense because they were basically stopping my daughter from reading! And another thing Sora could be working on, my daughter can only check out one book at a time and hold one book at a time, why aren’t they letting her check out and hold more? So Sora’s a good app when you actually can read on there, otherwise, it could use some work.

SorabyOverDriveEducation is really great and I’ve been using it for a while now. However, I have been experiencing a bit of trouble recently. Everything was fine, and I had just gone into SorabyOverDriveEducation , when I realized that all the books I had borrowed were gone. I figured it might just be a glitch, so I went in and out again, but it still wasn’t working. So I tried to type the name of a book I wanted to read, and it started to load for a while, but then it said “could not load this list. Please try another”. I’ve tried all kinds of different books, and nothing works. I even deleted and reinstalled SorabyOverDriveEducation , but nothing is working. I was wondering if there was a way to fix this, or if I should just wait for a while. Please reply back soon if you can fix it. Thank you!

I really like sora! So much, in fact, I have it both on my computer at school, and my phone at home. When I went to school today I found I couldn’t check out the audiobook I wanted, so I tried to log out the in again, but it still didn’t work. Then I tried to check out a regular ebook. And this worked, but I didn’t want the ebook, I wanted an audiobook because ebooks can make my eyes hurt. I came home, hoping to check out a book here, then read it at school. I tried and it wouldn’t even let me download a regular ebook. At this point I’m really annoyed so I log out then in again, it STILL doesn’t work. I DELETE SorabyOverDriveEducation , RE- DOWNLOAD IT, LOG IN, SHUT DOWN MY PHONE, COMPLETELY REBOOT, AND IT STILL DOESNT WORK. I rely on sora for reading and this has me REALLY mad.

Thank you,
A loyal/concerned user

Okay Sora is good. I like it. It’s not their fault that they got four stars. It’s that recently I stumbled across a app called Libby and it was so good, even better than Sora. Plus, I only got Sora cause my school used it, but I realized that I can use my school library on Libby too. I am not a Libby advertiser, just a real customer, and plan on keeping Sora, but overdrive and Libby can add two libraries and allow me to navigate between my school and public libraries. This makes me use Sora less and less but overall SorabyOverDriveEducation is good and deserves 4 stars but if you want an exceptional five star app just get Libby and if you want two libraries get overdrive. Sora is good, maybe even great, but not as good as Libby or overdrive. I encourage you get those apps instead.

I really like using sora when I feel bored or am in need of a book, and for that it works fine. But it only allows you to borrow three books at a time, which is slightly annoying to me. For example, you have to give up a book you are halfway through reading because you would like this other book. Or, you would like to check out a whole series but you can only have 3 of the books at a time. Also, most of the books are more for smaller children. I understand that this is an app created for kids, but if you could add a few more books for people past 5th grade, that would be great. :)

Hello reader,
I love SorabyOverDriveEducation, if you are looking for an app with a large selection of e-books and audio books then this is the place for you! 📚 I was so excited when my English teacher recommended SorabyOverDriveEducation to me! I love how you can also get fun little achievements for reading different genres, renewing a book, returning a book early, etc. The selection is awesome 👏 👏 👏! My only issue with SorabyOverDriveEducation is the checkout limit, three books total (both your e-books and audio books combined not three each). Could the developers possibly bring it up to four, or maybe five? Thanks so much for reading! Bye!

I absolutely love Sora! I have used it for a while now and have had no problems. I love to download audiobooks to listen to and to read ebooks. There is such variety of genre and level. I like how you can do an advanced search and narrow it down to almost exactly what you want. Although Sora doesn’t always have what I’m looking for, it’s still a great app! I do have a request though. I know you can earn badges in all, but I think you should be able to set reading goals! Teachers should set goals for theirs students and students should be able to set goals for themselves too. Thank you so so much! - A very happy customer

I love how there is a timer and it stops after 30 minutes! One thing on the downside, it needs to rate books like tv shows. I got the book 13 reasons why not realizing it was a little mature. I start reading it and it just didn't seem like it should have been for me. And I didn't know at all! If there could be something to help this please let me know :) but besides that I love SorabyOverDriveEducation ! It's useful right now since my school is not currently going. I also love how it shows you how many books and how many minutes you have listened to or read. Thank you for reading my ted talk. Get the dang app.

SorabyOverDriveEducation is really amazing, I save a lot of money by getting all my reading done online! I read about 2 books a month so 24 books a year let’s say each book is $10 then I save $240 each year. That’s not even including the extra space I don’t need to clear for books. I also like how you can read on the go, if I’m bored I can just pop out my phone and read. I also like how I have a wide variety of books to choose from. All in all SorabyOverDriveEducation is a great place to just read and improve your mood.

SorabyOverDriveEducation is similar to Libby, but Libby is far superior. The main problem is that when you put a book on hold and it becomes available, SorabyOverDriveEducation does not let you know. The only way to discover that your hold is ready to borrow, is to open it each day to check. If you forget to open and check on the day the book becomes available, you lose your hold and have to go to the back of the line again. If you’re waiting several weeks for your hole to become available, sometimes you forget to open SorabyOverDriveEducation on a given day to check. Libby will notify you by email and phone notifications when your hold is available to check out. Until SorabyOverDriveEducation is updated with this feature, it only earns one star.

I love Sora and use it a lot. It’s great for school and also relaxing. You can choose any books you want it’s awesome when you can bookmark and highlight words and phrases in the book and come back to it later. However, the holds are not good. I placed a hold for a book on January 3rd, 2021. I was the first person in line after the person who had the book right now. It’s now May 6th and I am still waiting for the book! There are 5 other people in line behind me but I think the person who was reading it is not on Sora anymore. But it won’t release the book to me. Can that be changed?

I used to use the online version of SorabyOverDriveEducation before deciding to try the actual app and boy I’m I glad I sucked it up and downloaded this. I love that I can read without WiFi and that I don’t have up sign in every time I want to read. Ever since stuff has been closing I’ve been having to buy books online but with Sora I am able to get them for free and read anytime. It’s really nice and convenient little library in your pocket. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone and everyone. Thank you for your time. I hope you enjoyed my fricken Ted talk.

I love SorabyOverDriveEducation I only have one problem when ever I find a book I might like I find out u have the third and not the first or second or the last one which makes it really hard for me to find a book I might like I do think that greatly needs to be fixed I also have an example I am reading the Harry Potter books well u don’t have the last one or wings of fire u have like the first six but that’s it I think it would great if u could go through and download all the books in series u don’t have it would make SorabyOverDriveEducation 20 times better

I am a student who uses SorabyOverDriveEducation to listen to audiobooks during this pandemic, but with that I have a question: Why do you need to borrow and renew audiobooks? And here’s a better one: Why can I not renew an AUDIOBOOK when someone has a hold on it? It’s not like it’s an actual book that there is only one of, in fact, why is it even like this at all? Isn’t the whole point of a virtual library to keep books easily accessible? Maybe there is something that I don’t understand, but this system is REALLY stupid. (I know I complained a lot, but it’s still good, and is still a really easy way to access good reads or listens)

Now that app works again, it’s a fine app but I prefer overdrive. I wish you could sort titles by unread/read so I don’t have to scroll around looking. Sora looks prettier but I prefer function over cutesy. Overdrive just seems to be easier to maneuver around in & designed for phone savvy people. Sora looks like it’s for Elementary aged kids.
Old Review from Dec 2020: Sora worked fine this summer but about a week ago my app won’t open, it’s stuck on main screen. I didn’t want to delete for fear of losing all the books or any saved info. Anyone else experiencing this issue? HELP Overdrive/Sora, you’re my only hope.

I love Overdrive abs have used it for many, many years with no problems but was forced to download and use this with the Audiosync program I use with my students. SorabyOverDriveEducation almost never works. It either shows the initial icon and then turns black, or gets stuck on the initial icon screen. I’ve reinstalled, restarted the devices, tried WiFi and cellular, even multiple devices - nothing works. I finally found a contact email and they said it’s not SorabyOverDriveEducation . Well... everything else works perfectly fine and this doesn’t. I hate when companies force you to use their proprietary software.

I like that this is free, but SorabyOverDriveEducation needs work. Every time I reopen my audiobook it shoots me back to like 5 chapters before and I have to re-find my place. This can be extremely annoying because when you’re listening you’re not necessarily paying attention to what chapter you’re on.

To those that are complaining about wait lines for ebooks and audiobooks, though, THIS IS HOW THE LIBRARY WORKS and is not an issue with SorabyOverDriveEducation . Libraries buy e-copies of the book but are not allowed to loan out infinite copies. Otherwise the publishers/authors wouldn’t make any money.

I really think Sora is a great app, and you can read a wide variety of books. However, right now I can’t check out anymore books because it says I returned and borrowed too many books in a short period of time and I have to try again later. Now, I’ve been waiting for 2 days and it still says the same thing. If that gets fixed, then this would be the best reading app ever. It is amazing in every other way, and has great aspects.

SorabyOverDriveEducation is really good for finding books you can’t find in your school library I will be using SorabyOverDriveEducation to find books that I couldn’t find in my school library.

SorabyOverDriveEducation is pretty great there really isn’t that Many issue except from when you have to download the book it takes a really long time. It took me about 10 minutes to download a book.
But other than that everything is great SorabyOverDriveEducation is fast and easy to use.

Overall I’m pleased with SorabyOverDriveEducation. I still would personally choose Overdrive app, but as I use what my students would use, it isn’t too bad. One silly thing that is annoying is the number of steps to start the audiobook. Overdrive once I open the book, it would autoplay. Sora it takes 3-4 steps to get it to play. Minor but sometimes we need the quick start when multitasking. :)

I use SorabyOverDriveEducation through my high school library and I think it’s pretty good. The books are sometimes outdated and aren’t updated as often. The audiobooks interface is hard to navigate, especially when you’re trying to find the place where you left off last.

As I said before: good but not great.

Love SorabyOverDriveEducation, do a lot of reading on here, just wanted to let the developers know, I’ve been having trouble with the bookmarks. I can place a bookmark, but if I want to take it off I can’t. It gets very annoying when I have around a dozen bookmarks that won’t leave.

Some books that I would like is some more of the Gone Series By Michael Grant, I’m almost finished with Plague and just bought Fear I would like it if you could add the whole series or also some more young adult books that y’all might recommend. Thank You, A student from a school!

SorabyOverDriveEducation has been amazing so far, and I really love having the ability of taking a whole series around in your pocket. The ONLY thing I would change is that sometimes there’s only the first third and fourth of a series and I’m here like “Seriously?” Because I find a SUPER good book, but then I can’t get the second. And I’m super upset. But other than that, it’s been really helpful and I love it. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😊😊😊.

So I had SorabyOverDriveEducation for three days and since I am a fast reader and a book worm, I read and returned around 15 books. Later when I tried borrowing a new book, it told me I had borrowed and returned too many books in a short time which is totally unfair for fast readers. Also, it doesn’t have a lot of the books I want to read.

Recently I found that I can’t set a sleep timer. When I pull down it just does the dark screen and it won’t let me set a time and I can’t leave the set sleep timer screen. If that could be fixed soon that’d be great.

I love the new features of SorabyOverDriveEducation, it is much easier to access for students. However, I use overdrive with grades 6 through 12, and the new icon you’ve chosen is rather childish and young looking... will be hard to ‘sell’ to teenagers.

I think SorabyOverDriveEducation WOULD be great if there was actually some books. And all those books are to high level for me! If I want to actually want to have to a use for SorabyOverDriveEducation, I would DEFINITELY need more books

The holds are a major issue. My library actually doesn’t have a digital copy of a book, and I’m permanently on hold and was only told when I investigated it. Also, SorabyOverDriveEducation has many issues with not loading or even opening.

I love SorabyOverDriveEducation and recommend it to people that love to read, or always on their device. I am one who doesn’t like to read but with SorabyOverDriveEducation I am wanting to read every single day.

I do not understand... if it is an online book, why is there holds? like bruh! also you only have half a month to read a book! i cant even finish graphic novels in 2 months