Category: family book reviews

My two children and I have listened to a lot of audio books. Mostly we listen in the car. Or we used to, when they were at the same school, which is a 20-minute drive from home.

I felt it was a really fun way to avoid conversations.

These are the ones that stand out in my memory.

• Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers, narrated by Sophie Thompson – the books are so different from the movie I think of them as separate entities. Poppins’ character in these is delightfully crabby and flawed. It won’t be to everyone’s taste but I loved the magical quality to these adventures and the collection of strange characters. Thompson is superb.
• Masterminds series by Korman Gordon, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo, Tarah Consoli, Kelly Jean Badgley, Mike Rylander, and Maxwell Glick – adventurous, fun, mysterious, suspenseful. These will get you through a long car ride.
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, narrated by Jeff Woodman – also adventurous, very scenic, a wonderful imaginative trip
• Those are all Ms!!!
• Arf and Bow Wow by Spencer Quinn, narrated by James Frangione – the books are narrated by Bowser the dog and that makes them hilarious, only enhanced by Frangione’s voice for Bowser. These are solid mysteries though, with solid danger. Exciting.

Here’s my 14-year-old’s list:

• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate, narrated by Kirby Heyborne – he liked the characters, Crenshaw and the boy. I was often crying while listening to this one.
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, narrated by Lynn Redgrave – he liked how it was magical but seemed somehow plausible. He also said that although it wasn’t a mystery per se, as you went along you understood more about what was going on and things became clear. This one is looong.
• Wildwood by Colin Meloy, narrated by Amanda Plummer – he actually didn’t listen to this one, I did. But he read it and I told him about the audio version. I had a real problem with Plummer as narrator in the beginning. Something about her diction and the emPHAsis she put on certain (wrong) syllables made me want to scream. But the story was enough to overcome that and in time I did come to like some of her voices. A little bit.

Today my 2-year-old nephew read Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle to me and it is the last book I’ll ever need to read again, in fact it is the only book that now exists, there are no other books, end of book blog, thanks for playing.

Brown. Bear. Brown-Bear. Whatchyoo shee?

I love it when kids do this. It makes all the readings – ALL THE READINGS – of the same books over and over and over worth it. You can literally see your hard work paying off (in this particular case my sister and my brother-in-law’s work). Look at those pudgy fingers turning pages. Listen to them rolling the words in their mouths. It’s working! They are on their way to reading on their own.

Of course one day you will miss them wanting to read with you… or sit next to you for the time it takes to read a picture book… it’s a whole thing. Cycle of parenting. But anyway.

Whatchyoo think, Brown Bear?