Allegra Goodman writes about the “life-saving power” of listening to audiobooks (Austen, Caro, Dumas, Voltaire) with her son. “We spent hundreds of hours together and had a respite from each other too.” I *love* listening to audiobooks w/ my kids.
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What audiobooks have you all enjoyed with your kids? My nine and 11 year old boys are storming through all Stuart Gibbs right now (usually after reading first).
I wrote about some of our family's favorites back in 2018. I recommend The Trumpet of the Swan unreservedly.
Mentioned in Jason’s post but I also have to unreservedly recommend EB White reading “Charlotte’s Web” and Kate Winslet’s “Matilda”, especially Matilda because it was published after I’d moved on from kids books and so it was new to me and my children at the same time. And it’s probably now my favorite Roald Dahl. I listen to it at least once a year!
Thank you for the link to the past entry and other comments! It will also be fun to get into some heavier stuff later that Goodman references. Audiobooks are such a great way to join our kids in their world (or one we should not ever leave, ala Katherine Rundell's "Why You Should Read Children's Books - Even Though You Are So Wise And Old").
My daughter and I are listening to Danny Champion of the World (an old favorite) right now, but based on the stuff that Goodman listened to with her son, we might try some more adult fare next. (Our last two books were Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the Nile.)
Probably "listening", not listing :)
Love this—thanks, Jason.
If you have not listened to the new recordings of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you are in for a treat. They are read (performed, really) by Andy Serkis (who played Gollum in the Peter Jackson films) and WOW.
He does voices for all the various characters and creatures, sings the songs, and gave me a whole new appreciation for Tom Bombadil—a lyrical and metered part of the book that I had always found a challenging part to read to myself.
Highly recommended.
Beverly Cleary's Henry and Ribsy books as read by Neil Patrick Harris were road trip staples when my kids were young. As were the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books... lots of miles covered with those.
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