Three weeks of The Tale of the Runaway Pancake—narrated by a whiny John Lithgow— and Bob the Builder’s Pilchard Goes Fishing, an inane tale full of—boing!—loud sound effects threatened to destroy the very fabric of our family. But, since it was either listen to these books on CD during our three-week European vacation or endure three-year-old Jeremy’s tortured shrieks when we turned it off, we endured it. It wasn’t pretty but nothing a couple of years of family counseling couldn’t fix.
Since then, we take as much time packing our books on CD as we do our clothes. We listen to them on long road trips and pack them for plane trips when we know we’ll be renting a car. We get most of them from the library, if possible, but they are available on Amazon either as CDs or downloadable on a Kindle or smart phone.
And since I can’t seem to write a word without sharing my parenting philosophy, I have to mention that I’m a big fan of literature that makes you scared, makes you weep, and makes you laugh hysterically. I think too many children’s books are so toned down that they produce no reaction at all. The beauty of listening to books on CD on family car rides is you can discuss the themes as a family.
Here are some of our very favorites:
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren: We love listening to the classic antics of this little red-headed Swedish girl and her pet horse, the ultimate outsider.
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl: This tells the story of a little boy who runs away from his horrible aunts to live in a giant peach with some colorful insects. Narrator Jeremy Irons does an incredible job bringing the story to life.
Flush, by Carl Hiaasen: A well-written and funny story about a cruise ship dumping waste into a Florida beach and the great lengths a family will go to stop them.
Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare: A suspenseful tale of a thirteen-year old boy who is left alone in the Maine wilderness in the 18th century. His friendship with a Native American boy and his grandfather teach him to live off the land and survive.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo. If you like powerful heartwarming stories like The Secret Garden and The Velveteen Rabbit, you’ll love this one. It’s about a beloved china bunny who gets lost and travels from the depths of the ocean to gritty city streets. There won’t be a dry eye in the car.
We’ve already picked out one of our books for our long drive to Maine in August: Carl Hiaasen’s latest book, Chomp, about a boy whose father, a professional animal wrangler, gets a job working for a reality survivor show. We can’t wait to sit back and listen!
Read our other article for more tips for surviving long family car rides.
For mine, it’s been Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket. Throw in some Stuff You Should Know and Car Talk podcasts and we can be on the road indefinitely. When they were younger, the Rabbit Ears Tales were a big hit. They’re common folk tales & such narrated by various celebrities. Very engaging for them.
Yes! We loved the Rabbit Ear ones and still own quite a few. We’ll have to throw them in the mix for our summer trips.
Thanks for the new ideas. One of our all time favorites is The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright — and the rest of that series. Also, the 68 Rooms by Mary Ann Malone. Happy travels
Excellent! Those are now on our list.
Listening to audio books is practical and it meets the busy lifestyle of contemporary people. You can tune in to your favorite books anytime anywhere, while you are walking, sh… The popularity of iPod and MP3 players has raised the marketplace of audiobooks in recent years. Some book publishers also believed that audio books could outsell paperback books or e-books one day. Indeed, this pattern is clear if you think about some great benefits of audio books over paperback books.