Audiobooks have been a classroom staple since we were kids—which is maybe why many parents overlook them. But if you haven’t downloaded a library of stories on a family phone or tablet yet, it’s time. The scratchy cassette tapes of our youth have given way to vivid re-tellings, often by celebrities or the authors themselves, that can be downloaded in seconds. Best of all: you don’t have to feel guilty about plugging in. “Audiobooks are valuable media for your children because they don’t pre-digest imagery for them,” explains pediatrician Michael Rich, M.D., in his “Ask the Mediatrician” blog for Boston Children’s Hospital. “That means that as your kids listen to the stories, they’re given the exquisite experience of actively imagining the worlds they’re hearing about. Their brains can paint the characters and actions in ways that resonate most with them.”
Audiobooks can also boost literacy. In a recent multi-center study, researchers found that kids’ participation in a weekly audiobook club significantly improved standardized test scores as well as attitudes towards reading. “The impact of this project was more far-reaching than the researchers ever anticipated,” authors wrote. “While the teachers were initially pleased to have some outside help with their struggling readers, most were satisfied to send in a list of students and leave it at that. The teachers’ responses, however, indicate that by the end of the study they were sold on the use of audiobooks.”
We’re sold, too. Audiobooks have become my number-one favorite family chill-out tool. We play them during car rides (even short ones), quiet time, and sometimes just before bed. Listening together unites us in a way that reading to them doesn’t—perhaps because we’re experiencing the story in the same way. They’re also genius for sick days: Dim the lights, fluff up some pillows, and set up some stories on low volume as kids drift in and out of sleep.
You can pay to own titles at iTunes or Amazon’s Audible.com (first story is free), or borrow from the local library (most now offer instant streaming through Overdrive.com). Here are some terrific selections to start with.
Preschoolers
Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner. You think you have fun attempting “kitty boy’s” loco language? Author Judy Schachner is hilarious in this installment of Skippyjon’s adventures—in this case, pretending that dog bones (filched from canine nemesis Darwin) are dinosaur fossils. My kids giggle out loud.
Frog and Toad Audio Collection by Arnold Lobel. A rare example of little-kid fiction in which illustrations are fairly superfluous, the Frog and Toad series brings together a string of short (5-10 minute) tales which are cute and simple with wry wit that older children and grown-ups can get into too.
Grades K-2
Nate the Great Collected Stories Vol. 1 by Marjorie Sharmat. John Lavelle is perfectly deadpan as kid-sleuth Nate, who takes his cases (of missing cookie recipes and the like) seriously. His interpretation of dotty Rosamond is especially funny.
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. Something about Stephen Fry’s crisp accent and Paddington’s wanderings about London makes for great, cozy listening. Kids will laugh and feel empathy at the sweet bear’s misadventures.
Grades 3-6
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. The movies are entertaining, but the original series by Cressida Cowell is the real deal, and a vocab-boosting triumph of kids’ fiction. British narrator David Tennant is at his cheeky best as he relates how hapless Hiccup tries to live up to his lofty Viking heritage.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Wasn’t Anne Hathaway born to play Dorothy? She is spot-on in this voice and others in this treat of an audiobook, which may capture today’s kids’ interest more than the print version.
Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson. The amazing Alfred Molina skips back and forth between gentlemen and salty pirates effortlessly. Wait until you hear his Long John Silver. My 9-year-old was hooked from the start.
Photo credit: “Pondering” via Photo Pin, cc