Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Audiobooks

I can't remember if it was recommended here or somewhere else but I'd heard that audiobooks were a good idea for kids struggling with reading. Basically the idea being that with an audiobook they could continue to learn, build vocabulary, etc. at their cognitive level while they work on bringing their reading up.

DS5 just finished his first chapter audiobook (Coraline). He really enjoyed it and is ready to start another one.

I am not an audiobook person but from my friends who are, I understand narration is very important.

Any recommendations?

Our entire family loved listening to the first Harry Potter book during a very long road trip last summer. I thought it was very well done.

We've done lots of audiobooks. They also help with learning to hear the meter of a sentence. I have a child who evidently goes from text to understanding without "hearing" the language as she reads. This lead to significant writing problems.

For the younger set, we enjoyed

Freckle Juice, Judy Blume
Henry and Ribsy, Beverly Cleary
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White
Stewart Little, E.B. White
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Beverly Cleary
The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
A Cricket in Time Square, George Selden
The Railway Children, Edith Nesbit
Centerburg Tales and More Centerburg Tales, Robert McClausky
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Cheaper by the Dozen, Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth

All were available from the public library on CD.

DD5 loves the entire Harry Potter series (expensive, but SO worth it), Malory Towers, by Enid Blyton - super cheap, the entire series on iTunes. she's a little past The Wombles and The Hobbit, but really loved them both. i'm sure she'll come back to The Hobbit when we read LOTR.

Check your public library first. Ours has thousands of titles. This gives the added bonus that if you don't like the story or the reader's voice, you can just return it.

You can download audiobooks from our public library. We love audiobooks. If you liked Coraline, try the Graveyard Book, also by Neil Gaiman.

Thanks for the recommendations. We have over 70 hours of car travel time planned so far this summer so we'll have plenty of time to enjoy many of these suggestions.

I got a subscription to audiobooks.com. We've checked out the CD's before from the library but were disappointed because they were scratched. I need to go in and see if they can help me get their materials to work on my phone. Until then, we'll give audiobooks.com a try.

He looked through the covers and picked Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins collection. It has all six books and over 15 hours of listening. He finished the first book right away and wanted to start the second.

I think he might just sit there and listen all day if I let him.

Bumping this old (but helpful) thread. We've started audio-booking for the long drive to school every day. Any other suggestions (we've done a bunch from the list already).

The specialist working with my DD recommended that audiobooks were often very helpful but should be used along side the written text. Make sure the audiobooks follows the same version of the text and have your child read while listening at the same time.

This doesn't mean they can't just listen to audiobooks for fun. But it's a book they are supposed to be reading for classwork, they should be following along the written text at the same time.

We are just doing this for recreational listening. It is a long ride to school. Are there benefits (vocabulary etc) to this form of audio only listening?

At any rate we both enjoy it and appreciate any more suggestions for good stories for DS4

We have listened several times to "Vincent Shadow - Toy Inventor" (by Tom Kehoe), and "Nurk, The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew" (by Ursula Vernon). We found both by browsing titles at our local public library, and they are great fun. Oh - and "Aliens on Vacation" by Clete Barrett Smith.

The reader is so important - and the reader for each of these really added to the tales, which are awesome on their own.

Also Whizz Popp Chocolate Shoppe by Kate Saunders was great - using several actors for the various characters. It did have some scary parts for my DS7 - but he is very sensitive on this (e.g., he couldn't watch 101 Dalmations when they played it at school. "They're trying to KILL those PUPPIES!!")

One reason I like all the above stories is that they aren't so formulaic. We get a little weary of kids books that follow a cookbook recipe with only slight modifications. But that's another topic!

Have fun,
Sue

We loved listening to "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch", "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", and all of the Ramona books. Jim Weiss narrated "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" and I loved his voice so much that I checked out a few other titles that he had narrated from the library.

For whatever reason, my youngest son couldn't handle some audiobooks when he was little because they were too scary. Unfortunately, I can't remember which ones they were!

We've started listening to audiobooks recently, because we spend over an hour in the car several times a week and both kids are prone to motion sickness when they read. My goal is to pick books that they wouldn't otherwise read, are too long for me to read aloud, or are maybe a little advanced.

So far the results have been mostly good (we've listened to the first HP book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz, the first two volumes of Story of the World, and several recordings by Jim Weiss.) The only "fail" we've had is Robin Hood, which DS9 found too difficult to follow (accent + archaic vocabulary), so we stopped after a couple of discs.

We own some of these, but primarily I've been relying on the library.

Thanks all! The Black Stallion was a big hit and we are moving on to the next one. And if there are scary bits in the audiobooks my DS4 just covers up his eyes which seems to help