Audio Books Through the Ages

I am a huge reader.

It wasn’t until I was finished university and realized I could CHOOSE what I wanted to read that I discovered the joy of reading. Now, I am in a book club, host frequent book swap parties, and will read just about anything.

I have also discoverd the joy of audiobooks. When we travel in the car, whenever we put on an audiobook, the children magically go silent and pay attention to every word! It is how we survive car trips!

In fact, audiobooks can be used at all stages of life! Here’s how:

Newborn

At this stage, the audiobooks are more about the breastfeeding mama.

When my first son was born, I was looking forward to catching up on my reading, but as a new mom, I didn’t always have the time. So, I started playing audio books in the nursery. I always looked forward to going in for a feed so that I could hear the next part of the story.

In fact, my idea was featured in the December 2008 edition of Today’s Parent!

Toddlers and Preschoolers

At the stage when kids are first learning to read, they love to follow along with stories. We are lucky that our library has a big collection of the “kits” that come with both the book and the CD.

Some of our favourites for this age group include:

– David Shannon’s – Too Many Toys: Book and CD

– Any of the Skippy Jon Jones books by Judy Schachner: Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble

School-Aged Children

My boys love to listen to audio books in the car, even if only for a five-minute drive. We were also having troubles with our oldest falling asleep quickly at night as he was always playing around in his room. However, when we set up an audio story to play for half-an-hour, he would lay quietly listening to the story and would often fall asleep before it was over.

By far our favourite series is Mr. Gum read by Kate Winslett. These are a MUST.

– The Mr. Gum Collection: Part One: Four Wacky Adventures Narrated by Kate Winslet (age 5+)

– Winnie The Pooh Audio (age 3+)

– How To Train Your Dragon (7+)

– The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2CD Limited Special Edition) (8+)

– The Lord of the Rings: The Complete Trilogy (8+)

Adulthood

Now that my kids are in school, I am always listening to audiobooks – when I bake, clean, walk the dog, etc. I love a good murder mystery or adventure story!

– I love anything by Janet Evanovich- for example Two For The Dough

– Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

– Anything by David Baldacci like Hell’s Corner

What are your favourite audiobooks – either for kids or adults? Leave a suggestion (along with the age range).