Although we read A LOT, aside from the occasional audio picture book, we haven't spent much time listening to audiobooks.
Until this summer.
One summer we took a trip to the Jersey shore, and since there was no train, I was looking at 2 hours on the bus. Normally, I read aloud when my kids get squirrel-y but I get motion sickness in cars and busses so I suspected audio books might be the answer to keeping the kids from driving me crazy. The audiobooks for kids that I chose worked brilliantly and I could hear the kids giggling while I lay back and enjoyed the scenery.
When we returned from our holiday I discovered that my kids were hooked on audiobooks, and we started listening to them at home. I love that audio books can satisfy kids' need to hear stories repeatedly without my having to read the book ad nauseam.
If you are new to audiobooks, Amy of Sunlit Pages, has some stellar tips to help your kids love audiobooks.
All of these audiobooks for kids are appropriate for ages 5 and up (in my opinion). Note: book covers and titles are affiliate links.
Great Audiobooks for Kids
A Bear Called Paddington was a very recent read aloud of ours. Stephen Fry narrates both audiobooks, but only More About Paddington was available for download through our library. Fry is a wonderful narrator and hits just the right tone for Paddington's delightful adventures.
Kenny & the Dragon. The spectacular Alan Cummings narrates DiTerlizzi's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic story, The Reluctant Dragon. New Kid asked for a lot of clarification as to the vocabulary in this one, but he listened to it three times, so it was definitely a hit.
Toys Go Out is one of my favorite of all chapter books to read aloud. I mention it all the time! (See: list of read aloud chapter books for 4-6 year olds) There are three books in the Toys series, but only one audiobook. Hopefully, that will be corrected soon!
Mr. Popper's Penguins. My 5 year old has listened to this story at least a dozen times.
You all know that My Father's Dragonis my very favorite first chapter book read aloud for young kids. If you follow me on Facebook, you also know that my 5 year old STILL requests it, even though I have read all three books more than 5 times. Now that he can listen to the audio book, it frees me up to enjoy other read alouds!
The Chocolate Touch. My son only listened to this story through the headphones, so I never actually heard the narrator, but he laughed out loud many times. He was familiar with the story, both because his Kindergarten teachers read the book to the class, and because we read it at home.
I'm going to introduce the next few titles but making the bold assertion that you can not go wrong with anything written by Beverly Cleary. My son has been listening in rapture all summer to Cleary's books. He simply cannot get enough. I finally checked out the entire Henry Huggins collection and the Ramona Collection so he would have all the books at once.
Neil Patrick Harris narrates all the novels in the The Henry Huggins Audio Collection. I adore all of the voices he gives the kids on Klickitat Street, especially Ramona's!
The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection is narrated by Stockard Channing. I've only read one, Beezus and Ramona, aloud and I might have spent the next few weeks reading all the Ramona books from beginning to end had it not been for this great collection.
The Beverly Cleary Audio Collection consists of the author's lesser known, but no less entertaining, books. The set includes a variety of narrators.
The Ralph S. Mouse Audio Collection includes all three books in the series that begins with The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
Magic Tree House. I am not the biggest fan of reading Magic Tree House books aloud. I read a bazillion of them with my oldest son and I do not want to repeat the process. I have moved on. Thank goodness for the audiobooks. My 5 year old has begun requesting them and so I have been downloading them from the library. I am not going to re-read them thankyouverymuch. I encourage you to do the same.
I am calling Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid the wild card of this list. It's a bit of a random recommendation and I downloaded it on a whim because my older son loved reading these early chapter books when he was younger. (See our list of early chapter book series about boys) Nancy Cartwright is a very entertaining narrator and now my younger son can listen to the books he likes to flip through from our bookshelf.
How to listen to audiobooks:
Audible.com from Amazon. Audible has the largest, most reliable selection of audiobooks for kids and grown-ups alike. You can try it out free for 30 days.
The Epic! books app. I've written extensively about this app, which has ebooks, read-to-me books and audiobooks. You can try it out for 30 days free.
Your library! Use the Overdrive or Hoopla app, or check out the CDs.
Want more audiobooks? Check out my list of audiobooks for family road trips.
Anna@The Measured Mom says
Great resource!! Thanks so much!
Fiona says
We love audio books including Paddington. Some of our other favourites are : Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by Eric Idle; Peter Pan, Around the World in 80 days, James Herriot's Treasury for Children all read by Jim Dale (he is our favourite reader); Winnie the Pooh collection read by Peter Dennis.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thanks for the suggestions!
Amy @ Sunlit Pages says
I am exactly the same as you in that I usually only check out audiobooks I've already read aloud to my boys, and it's because I don't want to miss out on the fun of reading them! Also, I second the opinion to check out Magic Tree House on audio--my kids love those books, but I don't feel sad missing them!:-)
Ann says
Audio books are a great idea for road trips. They might be a great idea for our story time too since I have trouble reading much more than a few picture books and my kids are getting older. Never read Paddington or Mr. Popper's!
Claire says
Great list!! Thanks so much! Have been looking for good ones for my soon-to-be kindergartener! 🙂
sarah says
Yes! We've listened to the Winnie-the-Pooh books over and over again! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is fun, and we love the Nate the Great collections. My kids love Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. The Mysterious Benedict Society was recently recommended to me (I loved the book, but we haven't listened to it yet!). I'm on the waiting list at our library for an Encyclopedia Brown collection, and we loved the audio version of The Tale of Despereaux. 🙂
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thanks for the suggestions! Those are all great books and we haven't listened to any of those yet! My 9 year old LOVES the Mysterious Benedict Society, too!
Susan McClarty says
What age would you recommend chitty chitty bang bang for? 6 yr old boy???
Erica MomandKiddo says
You could read it to a 6 year old if he is an experienced listener.
CC says
Have you ever listened to Heather Forest? She is a storyteller, and weaves music into the folk tales she tells. Its like a kids music CD and stories in one. So I guess it isn't really an Audiobook. Making this an off-topic comment. But still worth a listen and a wonderful way to hear stories. We first checked out out one of her CDs 3-4 years ago and still listen to them often. I recommend Tales Around the Hearth and Sing Me a Story. If Animals Could Talk is her take on Aesops Fables and also good. Sing Me a Story is my favorite and includes lots of well-known favorite fables like 3 Billy Goats Gruff.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thank you for the suggestion! I've not heard of Heather Forest. It sounds good!
Natalie PlanetSmartyPants says
We listened to some of them on CDs. Little House series is still a favorite audio book in our house followed closely by The Story of the World.
Lisa Dreisigmeyer says
A series of Unfortunate Events read by Tim Curry, The Spiderwick Chronicles, 39 Clues- all good for maybe 7 and up.
Doris says
We just started using audiobooks as well. My favorite one so far is Cherry Jones reading Because of Wynn Dixie. She is brilliant. Love your website.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thanks, Doris!
jaime says
Cam Jansen Mysteries are great, anything by Dr. Seuss, Jim Dale narrates the Harry Potter series beautifully (thought I'm itching to get my hands on a copy narrated by Stephen Fry), Barefoot Books publishes very nice audiobooks (and has a podcast) of folklore and fables from around the world. Oh, and Skippy Jon Jones books are fantastic audiobooks!
Rachel says
Try the "A Thicket of Tales" series by A.D. Hasselbring! Kind of like a modern Aesop's Fables... They're on Audible and Amazon (and I think iTunes) as audiobooks, and there's a Kindle for the text version, too. Exciting, each story has a lesson, and very visual storytelling, so the kids DEFINITELY get into it!
Hansen says
Oh my gosh, these books are awesome - we just found them before a car trip this winter break. Our kids allLOVED them - no fighting, no complaining. They actually kept asking us to put them on. Good for boys and girls, and worked well across multiple ages for us. (Thank goodness. We haven't had that luck with all audiobooks.) And it is REALLY visual, so the kids were completely engrossed. My littlest even asked for paper after to draw Maria and the tree! You can't go wrong.
Erica MomandKiddo says
I'm so glad you enjoyed the book list! Happy Listening!
Bonnie Hacker says
My grandson LOVES all the Bunnicula Books by James Howe and we have listended to them numerous times. he also liked Charlotte's Web.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thank you for the recommendations!
Susan says
Just so you know, I just downloaded toys go out on audible and it looks like all three are available there:)
Erica MomandKiddo says
Oh, GREAT news!!!
Abigail says
Do the audiobooks on OverDrive have page turn prompts for little ones?
Erica MomandKiddo says
That would depend on the book, I guess. Picture books and easy readers may still have that characteristic, but with the chapter books we've listened to don't. Overdrive is free if your library uses it, so it can't hurt to check out a few books to see if you can find one! I hope it works out for you!
Nancy "Mimi" Taylor says
So glad I saw this. We have a road trip coming up in a few weeks with my 6 year old grandson. I just ordered several of these from our local library. Can't wait to listen to these stories with him!
Erica MomandKiddo says
Have a great trip!
SuePeterson says
Our favorite audio books are the hamster Humphrey series, great stories and we have become addicted to Humphrey. Also A Dog on His Own a story about K-9, a dog by Mary Jane Auch, unfortunately only one book we have found, but great stories.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thanks for the suggestions!
Skye says
Thanks so much for doing this post, there are so many good suggestions in the post and the comments section! We started in on audiobooks when I had a vocal chord injury that limits how much I can talk/read, and then found how perfect they were for road trips. Now we always have one in the car for the 20 minute drive to school each day. I love having a queue of next options that other parents have recommended.
Erica MomandKiddo says
So glad the post is helpful, Skye! Happy listening!
Dahlia says
My 4 year old loves Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roal Dahl, read by Chris ODowd. His accent makes the story even more fun to listen too. I was able to hear it about a dozen times and still enjoy it. Its quite long, great for a 3 hour drive.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Thanks for the recommendation!
Breanna says
My kids LOVE the Bunnicula collection audio book!
Juliana says
We have really enjoyed the Knights' Tales by Gerald Morris
http://www.amazon.com/Knights-Tales-Collection-Lancelot-Ill-Fated/dp/B00B0OR27E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440934560&sr=8-1&keywords=Knights%27+tales+collection
They are good for a mixed age group and for both boys and girls.