The Best Family Audio Books

Listen to audio books while spending time together as a family. In our family we listen to audio books while doing puzzles on cold winter nights in front of the fire. Audio books are especially popular while travelling in the car for long periods of time, the best family audio books are the ones that we all can enjoy and that are appropriate for all members of the family.

Audio books are a blessing for family members who are blind, visually impaired or disabled, bringing them the pleasure of reading and the experience of enjoying a book.

Sometimes it is hard to agree on what we want to listen too. The younger kids want sing along stories and the older kids want drama and excitement, and the adults, well, we want drama and excitement, but sometimes it's fun to sing along.

One thing we do all agree on is that the narrator's voice has to be good. The narrator's voice is so important. This will vary from person to person, so if you can, listen to an excerpt from the audio book to make sure you like the voice. Audio books are often narrated by the author or a professional actor with music and sound effects to go with the story. Some audio books are narrated by a full cast portraying all the characters.

Good, high quality narration brings the stories alive and you will listen to them over and over again with great pleasure and attention

Unabridged is read word for word - staying true to the book, whereas abridged means the book has been condensed or shortened.

In our family, the best family audio books are those narrated by a full cast.

Full cast or theatre production audio books use many character voices and sound effects to bring the audio books alive. They truly are wonderful, full and rich productions. We like the old classics like Sherlock Holmes, A Christmas Carol, Mark Twain, especially Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, and recently Emma, by Jane Austin.

There are many Sherlock Holmes full cast productions to choose from. The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of our all time favourites.

Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles What turns out to be one of the most interesting cases of the great detective's career begins when a country doctor visits Holmes and Watson in London.

He brings with him the legend of the hound and news of the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville. Sir Charles' heir, Henry, is arriving from America and the doctor is afraid for the young man's life. Holmes despatches Dr Watson to accompany them back to the dark and sombre estate in the Devon moor.

With peril at every turn and a murderous escaped convict at large, the mystery deepens. Is the ancient legend true, or is the hideous creature merely a part of a sinister conspiracy whose origins are all too diabolically human?

A PHIL BYRNES MYSTERY. Episode 1: DEBUTANT IN DANGER The Phil Byrnes Mysteries are another great series with many titles to choose from.

Delightfully funny, wonderful detective stories about a woman detective and her assistant Buzzy.

Emma (mp3) Arrogant, self-willed and egotistical, Emma is Jane Austen's most unusual heroine.

Her interfering ways and inveterate matchmaking are at once shocking and comic. She is 'handsome, clever and rich' and has 'a disposition to think too well of herself. When she decides to introduce the humble Harriet Smith to the delights of genteel society and to find her a suitable husband, she precipitates herself and her immediate circle into a web of misunderstanding and intrigue, from which no one emerges unchanged.

Classic Drama: Huckleberry Finn Young Huck Finn can't get along with the Widow Douglas' attempts to 'sivilize' him, or the smothering discipline which she and her sister serve up at home. So when his drunken, good-for-nothing father turns up and kidnaps him, Huck takes his cue to leave - and escapes to Jackson's Island. There he meets runaway slave Jim, and the two become firm friends.

Their bond of trust holds strong as they travel down the Mississippi river on a raft - witnessing misdeeds and murder along the way - and are separated, captured and re-captured before continuing in their bid for freedom. Full of tension, excitement, comedy and drama, Twain's sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is also regarded as a comment on the slavery and colour prejudice inherent in the mid-19th century American South.





and of course no collection is complete without a full cast production of A Christmas Carol.Christmas Carol, A