As you probably know by now, I am a big fan of hoopla, the digital entertainment service offered for free by over 1,500 libraries across North America (read my earlier to post to figure out how and why to access hoopla.) If you have a hoopla account and an upcoming road trip, here’s a list for you: 14 tried-and-tested kids’ audiobooks all available on this awesome service.
Remember: Not all audiobooks are created equal! These versions are family-tested and narrated by some of the best in the biz.
Title: The Arnold Lobel Audio Collection
Author: Arnold Lobel
Narrator: Mark Linn-Baker
Format: Short stories
Length: 57m
Age group: 3-6
The skinny: These four gentle tales, by beloved author Arnold Lobel, are filled with a host of characters both silly and charming.
Title: Frog and Toad Audio Collection
Author: Arnold Lobel
Narrator: Arnold Lobel
Format: Short stories
Length: 1h 32m
Age group: 3-7
The skinny: BFFs Frog and Toad have endeared themselves to children for almost 50 years. Their adventures are expertly narrated by the author himself in this collection.
Title: Winne-the-Pooh
Author: A.A. Milne
Narrator: Peter Dennis (or Judi Dench, Stephen Fry et al)
Format: Short stories
Length: 4h
Age group: 6-10
The skinny: Stories of the world’s best-loved bear are brought to vivid life by talented storytellers in both these audio versions. If you’ve not yet experienced the books, know that the humor is nuanced and can be enjoyed at almost any age. Note that it may be worth giving your child a little explanation before getting started, because the introduction, and first few lines of Chapter 1 (in which we are introduced to Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh), can be confusing without a book at hand to provide context.
Title: Classic Fairy Stories
Author: Various
Narrator: Bernard Cribbins
Format: Short stories
Length: 2h 36m
Age group: 6-11
The skinny: These may be traditional tales (Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, etc), but expertly retold in language so rich that this collection is probably better-suited to older kids. Some British-isms may need to explained.
Title: Just So Stories
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Narrator: Geoffrey Palmer
Format: Short stories
Length: 3h 31 m
Age group: 8-11
The skinny: I never could get into reading the Just-So-Stories, because the sometimes-indecipherable verse and the repeated interjections (“my best beloved”) irritated me. So I never encouraged my boys to read them either. But listening to these tales as an audiobook made me understand why this collection is a classic. The poetry in Kipling’s writing comes wonderfully alive. Note that these stories were written over a hundred year ago in colonial times and there is orientalism aplenty. In fact this is the only audio version I have found that does not use the “n” word in “How the Leopard Got Its Spots.” As for the rest, my approach is to listen with my kids and discuss the colonial context.
Title: Nim’s Island
Author: Wendy Orr
Narrator: Kate Reading
Format: Full-length story
Length: 2h 26m
Age group: 8-12
The skinny: A resourceful young girl deploys her skills and wits to survive when her father goes missing from their island home. The narrative often included the email exchange between Nim and a newfound friend on the mainland. This could cause a little confusion for a young listener, so it’s worth giving a word of explanation upfront.
Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
Author: Various
Narrator: Tom Taylorson
Format: Full-length story
Length: 2h 47m
Age group: 8-13+
The skinny: I am always amazed at how well these “junior novelizations” of block-buster, mass-market movies are written. My expectations are low, but always exceeded. This telling of the Captain America origin story—how scrawny Steve Rogers transforms into the superhero that saves the world from annihilation by Red Skull and Hydra—had my boys riveted.
Title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Format: Full-length story
Length: 3h 36m
Age group: 10+
The skinny: Neil Gaiman’s voice is perfect for narrating this slightly sinister tale about Coraline Jones. New to town and bored, Coraline goes exploring her new home on a rainy day, only to unlock a mysterious door. Like some contemporary Alice going through the looking glass, there on the other side Coraline finds a mirror-image of her world. At first things seem so much better in this new world, but soon they become very strange indeed. (Read my full review).
Title: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Author: C.S. Lewis
Narrator: Michael York
Format: Full-length story
Length: 4h 23m
Age group: 8-14
The skinny: York does a fantastic job narrating this famous book from the Narnia series.
Title: All-Of-A-Kind Family
Author: Sydney Taylor
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Format: Full-length story (part of a series)
Length: 4h
Age group: 8-12+
The skinny: A lovely tale of 5 young sisters living in Lower East Side Manhattan in the early 1900s. Their innocent adventures and simple pleasures evoke life in a different era. Because the sisters belong to an observant Jewish family, my boys and I learnt a lot about a religion, and customs and traditions different from our own.
Title: By the Great Horn Spoon
Author: Sid Fleischman
Narrator: Mark Linn-Baker
Format: Full-length story
Length: 4h 30m
Age group: 9-12
The skinny: A rollicking tale about a boy and his resourceful butler who join the California Gold Rush of the 1800s to seek their fortune. In this audio version, the boy’s voice is a tad dated in its “gee-Mister” earnestness, but the plot soon takes over.
Title: Robin Hood
Author: Benedict Flynn
Narrator: John McAndrew
Format: Full-length story
Length: 2h 19m
Age group: 9-13+
The skinny: This sophisticated and poignant retelling by Benedict Flynn (much better suited to the current generation than the older Howard Pyle version) is excellently narrated by John McAndrew, and enhanced by period music and sound effects.
Title: Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
Author: James L. Swanson
Narrator: Will Patton
Format: Full-length story
Length: 3h 58m
Age group: 10-14+
The skinny: Swanson transforms exhaustive research into an utterly gripping tale about this tragic incident in American history. It is a real-life thriller, from the inception and enactment of a slapdash assassination plot, to a chase that transfixed a nation and ended in a barn in Virginia. Note that there are some quite-gory details about the assassination (clinical descriptions of Lincoln’s wounds, and of his care at the hands of doctors, appalling by today’s standards, etc.), but if you can stomach those details, you have in hand a book that brings history vividly to life.
Title: A Long Walk to Water
Author: Linda Sue Park
Narrator: David Baker, Cynthia Bishop
Format: Full-length story
Length: 2h 41m
Age group: 9-13+
The skinny: These are troubled times. Turn on the news and our children are just as likely as we are to be barraged and confused by the turmoil around the world. The word refugee comes up often in this context, and raises many questions for kids: Who are refugees? How do they come to be in such a desperate state – displaced, on the run, seeking respite anywhere they can find it? By telling the true story of Salva Dut, A Long Walk to Water presents parents and kids a chance to understand some of the forces and faces behind one particular refugee crisis. (Read my full review.)
That’s the tip of the iceberg! Check back often—I have many more tried-and-tested audiobooks I can’t wait to recommend to you!
Leave a Reply