Kits: Our kits are mainly geared towards Preschool children through second grade. The collection is mainly comprised of picture book and early reader read-alongs. The collection also includes non-fiction titles, such as books that help children learn a foreign language. It also contains publications such as Wee Sing that includes a CD with an accompanying music booklet. A majority of all these titles have a track or separate CD with page-turn signals, making it easy for children to listen to the book on their own and to know when to turn the page without adult assistance. Children who listen to a read-along kit are receiving the same benefit as though they are listening to a parent or another adult read them a book, as they are still picking up and learning new vocabulary and other early literacy skills. Kits are a valuable resource for pre-readers because it helps them develop early literacy skills such as print awareness. We have numerous kits that contain wonderful sound effects. I highly recommend Hondo and Fabian, The Librarian from the Black Lagoon, and Dooby Dooby Moo. For elementary school ages, try The Composer is Dead, and Jazz.
make sure there is a print edition of that title located somewhere in the overall children’s collection. This is helpful when a child would like to read along with the print book. This option is especially important to children who struggle with reading as it will help aid and assist them in their reading comprehension and is an excellent way to extend the story beyond their imagination as many audiobook narrators use a wide range of expressions and characterizations to make the plot more realistic than what's just printed in the book. A good narrator can really bring a book to life. As I've listened to probably 80% of the titles in our audiobook collection and have served three years on a national audiobook award committee (going on four), I can assure you that a good match between the narrator and the text makes all the difference in the world for a phenomenal audiobook experience. To the novice listener, this may be hard to justify, so here are some great fiction examples to try: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Alvin Ho Collection: Books 1 & 2. And for an exceptional non-fiction audiobook experience, try We are the Ship, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (with a full cast) and Marley: A Dog Like No Other.
Some may think that listening to a book on CD is a way to cheat on reading the print book. However, this is not the case, as they provide many benefits for children such as:
- Improving listening and comprehension skills
- Increasing vocabulary
- Learning the proper pronunciation of words
- Learning to "see" a story by using imagination instead of illustrations
- Getting motivated to read more by an author they've been introduced to through an audiobook
- Engaging a child's interest in a way that a parent reading aloud may not
Supplements print book reading- Another way to experience literature besides through printed books
- Providing an enjoyable family activity to share literature together
For more detailed information on the benefits of listening to audiobooks, read this article from Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/64/.
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