We love audiobooks! It all began when I had a 30 minute commute each morning. For three of those days, I had 3-year-old Carter with me, and we tried out a CD audiobook (from a Wendy's Kids Meal?) called Pirates Past Noon from the Magic Treehouse Series. We were able to finish it in the drive to school and back, and I soon borrowed others from the library from the same series. We moved on to Frog and Toad and Mercy Watson. I still credit Frog and Toad with teaching Carter how to read (he had listened to them so much that he was able to read them when I handed him the book version).
Getting my first smart phone the summer of 2020 took our audiobook listening to a whole new level. Now we had seemingly limitless options at our fingertips (through the Hoopla and Libby apps from the library). We could listen with our bluetooth speaker or through our car audio in the van. And best of all, we didn't have to keep track of where we stopped or which track on the CD we were on because it saved automatically.
And here are our top 5 favorites (although there are some audiobooks we enjoyed are listed in other categories. The Green Ember and The Wild Robot are listed in my top five middle grade fiction reads and the Whatever After series is listed in Best Series)
When Stars are Scattered - so, so powerful! I've read the graphic novel and listened to the audio, and I recommend both (we followed along in the book while listening to the narrator)! Sparked a lot of great conversations and empathy. Worlds away from our normal life in America, but it’s good to get a peek into such a different childhood experience.
A Long Walk to Water - We also listened to this one while we were studying Africa (to and from the Fort Wayne Zoo with my mom). The dual perspectives tell a more full picture. I've read this twice already (once myself and then once as a read aloud when I taught 5th grade), but I really enjoyed the audio version this time around.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle - I remember reading this as a kid. Last year, we listened to one of the Ramona books, but as an adult, I didn't care for her attitude. The boys enjoyed this one enough to want to listen to the other two in the series. We listened to these right before Beverly Cleary passed away at the age of 104.
Familyman's Christmas Treasury - I found this one when looking for Christmas-themed audio books. This is a compilation of stories. What I particularly liked about them was the Christian Christmas perspective with a variety of fiction tales without just repeating the Luke 2 Christmas story over and over. Many of them were also good discussion starters as a family.
The Cinnamon Bear - I'm counting this as a book even though it was technically a radio special. A blogger I follow recommended this Christmas radio series, and I'm so glad we found it on Hoopla! We listened to it every day from Dec. 1st (with a couple catch-up days) and ended on Christmas. Of course, a new problem always crops up by the end of the episode, but that's part of the fun! I love how old-timey the music, characters, and vocabulary were (Gee Willikers!). This may become an annual thing for us. Each chapter/episode is about 12 minutes long.
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