Audio Cds For 12 Year Olds

[Elnora Heidrick]

Weare driving cross country this summer with my almost-5 year old daughter. Last time we did this, we relied on a huge car nap to shave off some time for her, but she is done with naps. We don't use any sort of electronic media (iPads, movies), so I am hoping to find some audiobooks to play that will hold her interest (bonus if they hold mine as well!). I imagine she could listen for somewhere around 30 minutes or so at a clip.

I have family up and down the 101 so I know exactly what you're talking about! I also don't use screen time in the car. My 5 year old son really likes Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat and other stories audiobook and The Magic Tree House audiobooks. My husband also says he likes The Berenstain Bears and Paddington Bear audiobooks. I hope this helps!

There's an audio book of Charlotte's Web read by EB White that is wonderful. My daughter was enthralled by it at that age. On our last car trip, she (we) also got really into an audio book we found online of The Secret Garden. (She's 7 now, though. But her 5yo brother liked it too!)

I absolutely LOVE the audio books of the Harry Potter series. The reader, Jim Dale, is phenomenal and does different character voices that are fantastic. Not sure your 5yo would be ready for Harry Potter - mine wasn't, but we have friends whose kids were ready at that age, so maybe?

I was a nanny for 3 boys from ages 3-9 and we did a lot of driving. To keep them from fighting and becoming bored I played audiobooks that we got from the San Francisco public library. We didn't listen to any non fiction, but these were a hit with them-

It has been a while [ my daughter is 18] but she loved it when she had the book and the cd. She could look at the book , turn the pages and hear the story. Oakland Public library was a great resource. Also we had lots of kids music, Raffi, Smithsonian folk music and other kid songs. Go to children's librarian for other recomendations. We also had a bags of other entertainments- coloring materials, tanagrams, etc to alternate. Good luck. I can be fun. Kathleen

As a dyslexic kid with a dyslexic sister, I loved audio books as a child. My toddler is not old enough yet, so my recommendations will be dated. But we loved listening to Joel Ben Izzy. He had a lot of Jewish and multicultural folk tales. I loved all his voices, his storytelling cadence, and his humor. The stories are short enough that they are easily followed, and each collection is fun enough to hold attention.

So I don't have kids but got really into audiobooks in my last job (lots of mindless busy work). The Redwall series is a great series about animals on adventure. There are about 12 books now but the Audible versions have a cast of actors reading the stories. The first book is Redwall about an abby run by mice. Another recommendation but this might be better for an older child is Watership down. It is the story of a band of rabbits that sets out to find a new home. It's fairly adventurous with some challenges they face on the way. It ends with a battle between the hero rabbits and a war-lord rabbit that gets pretty gorey.

I get audio books for my kids using the Overdrive app on an iPad (that kids only use for audiobooks on car rides). Overdrive lets you connect with libraries (I belong to Berkeley, Alameda Co, and San Francisco, the last of which you just have to be a CA-resident to get a card and has good selection) and borrow e-books and audio books for 21 days.

Our kids loved the Little House On the Prairie audio books when they were small. Reading them aloud didn't work for some reason- they were too slow - but as audio books they were excellent. My 16 year old son recently commented that he remembered them quite fondly.

We have always enjoyed listening to books on CD when traveling. One of our favorites is Charlotte's Web -- the version we got from the library had E.B. White reading the book, he is of course the author of the book. It was wonderful. If you are interested in borrowing books-on-CDs from your library, ask the librarian for other recommendations. Happy listening!

I highly recommend Sparkle Stories (sparklestories.com). They are original stories and really great, even my husband and I like them. You can get a monthly membership or buy individual stories, most we have listened to are 20-30 minutes long, and there are many series. Our almost 5yo particularly loves the stories about Martin and Sylvia. Good luck!

What about the James Herriott books [the vet in the Yorkshire Dales]? All Things Bright and Beautiful, etc. There might be a few episodes not entirely appropriate for 5-year-old, but they're pretty tame in general.

We are avid audiobook listeners and have been since my daughter was small (she's 14 now). FWIW, the Berkeley library has a very large selection of books on CD (which I borrowed and loaded into and MP3 player). My daugther's taste ran more to fantasy than non-fiction, but in case this helps at all, the following are ones I remember being good:

Much of my work is devoted to helping kids spend less time with screens so I support your efforts. We like the Sing and Read Storybook and we have 4 of them, they are really short, they are older and harder to get now. Our kids have outgrown them. If you want to contact me through my website RichardFreed.com I could try to get them to you.

The audiobook of Flora and Ulysses was a hit with my 6 year old on a recent 10 hour drive. We also read Harry Potter aloud (although I've heard the audiobooks are good as well). Check out the library for audiobooks!

the Magic Treehouse series has worked well for our 4 year old for the last year. It incorporates historical characters with time traveling kids. There are also some great podcasts on science + general information that she likes -- we started with "But Why" from Vermont public radio, but we've expanded to a bunch of other ones.

Usborne Farmyard Tales (book + CD) and/or the Clementine books by Sara Pennypacker. Also consider CDs of wonderful children's music by Melita Silberstein and her band, Octopretzel: (CDs of the Muppets making music are fun, too!)

We traveled up and down 101 with Heidi (even the abridged version made the adults in the car cry), Ginger Pye, the little house books read by Cherry Jones. The fudge books read by Judy Blume. The Clementine Books.

U are in luck...anything by Jay O ' Callahan , such as Earth Stories, the Red Ball, are delightful....Story Crafters and Joel Ben Izzy, Odds Bodkin are also great ...enjoy! They are all wonderful story tellers!

We have listened to so many audiobooks in the car! You didn't mention what format you are looking for but Public Libraries still have audiobooks on cd's. When my daughter was 5-7 we listened to this fiction:

where the mountain meets the moon, Grimm's fairy tales, Hans Christian Anderson, mrs piggle-wiggle, charlottes web, stories by Joel Ben Izzy...my kid has never enjoyed audio non-fiction but has listened for hours to the above. Good luck and safe travels.

Hello. Our daughter has the same interests. She loves the Magic School Bus audio books about exactly the kind of topics you mention. She can follow along in the actual book, if you happen to have it. They might be a little advanced for an almost-5-year old, but they are fun and our daughter learned a lot, which makes her happy. The other thing we've relied on is science pod casts for kids. We download them (but for this you need a computer or iPad, or something) and then she can listen in the car. The one we love is called Brains On, and there are others. Good luck with the trip!

Our 5-year-old, who is also into science and not generally, super-interested in music, loves the "music stories" from the Magic Maestro: Eats up miles on long trips and we the parents enjoy them as well.

From the grown-ups' point of view, Peter and the Wolf is probably the best music. Kid likes Tortoise and the Hare the best. Sorcerer's Apprentice, Juanita the Spanish Lobster, Mike Mulligan, Swan Lake are all pretty good, too.

When my 8 yr old Streaming Stick showed signs of age I replaced it with a brand new 4K version. Now the sound cuts in and out. Across all channels on a 1080p Panasonic Viera. No HDMI cable used. No soundbar. I see this is an ongoing problem that has not been addressed for years. What gives?

The Roku Express has not produced a solution to the audio drop out problem first noticed in the 4K Streaming Stick. But I did learn that movies rented from Amazon Prime are trouble-free. So most likely this is a software conflict probably produced by an update that doesn't like old TVs.

Zoey and Sassafras by Asia Citro. This is a delightful series about a little girl and her sidekick cat that cure magical animals with their scientific knowledge. My girls LOVE this one (although currently only the first book is available as an audio book).

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. This is the #1 audio book series for preschoolers in our house. My oldest daughter refused to listen to anything else for four solid months and sobbed when she reached the end of the series. My second daughter also developed a massive love for these audio books when she was 4 and 5 and now my third daughter, who is 5, listens to them every single night (Epic! has a great collection of them and you can try it free for a month here!).

Juana and Lucus by Juana Medina. Juana loves her life in Columbia. She does NOT love learning English, until her grandfather gives her a very compelling reason to start learning it. This one is fun because it also has Spanish words sprinkled into the narration.

26 Fairmont Ave by Tomie dePaola. You probably know Tomie dePaola from his beloved Strega Nona series (and a bazillion other wonderful books), but these short chapter books about his growing up are so sweet and fun. There are four books in the series and each one runs just under an hour.

Zapato Power by Jacqueline Jules. These books run about 30-40 minutes each and they feature Freddie, a little boy who comes home to find a mysterious package that contains shoes that give him super speed.

3a8082e126