audio books

Some parents and teachers doubt that listening to audiobooks can be considered reading. But the benefits for children of listening to audiobooks is clear.

According to Denise Johnson, an assistant professor of reading education at the College of William & Mary, audiobooks can be used to:

• Introduce students to books above their reading level
• Model good interpretive reading
• Teach critical listening
• Highlight the humor in books
• Introduce new genres that students might not otherwise consider
• Introduce new vocabulary or difficult proper names or locales
• Sidestep unfamiliar dialects or accents, Old English, and old-fashioned literary styles
• Provide a read-aloud model
• Provide a bridge to important topics of discussion for parents and children who can listen together while commuting to sporting events, music lessons, or on vacations

In addition to these benefits, llistening to audiobooks is fun. It is another way for a child to immerse him or herself in a story. For a reluctant reader, that can make all the difference between hating to read and loving to read. Since Bookwink's mission is to make kids excited about reading, we think audiobooks are great, and we endorse them wholeheartedly for kids.

Here are a couple of our favorite ways to buy audiobooks:

Audible.com
Audiobooks that you download to your computer or MP3 player. Perfect if you are surgically attached to your iPod. Downloading is simple, fast, and hassle-free. You may buy individual audiobooks, or you may sign up for one of several monthly plans which allow you to download new audiobooks each month.

Simply Audiobooks
Audiobooks on CD that you can rent, keep as long as you need, and return in a postage-paid envelope. It's like Netflix for audiobooks. As soon as you return your audiobook, they send the next one on your queue. You may buy individual audiobooks, or you may sign up for one of several monthly plans which allow you to rent up to four selections at a time.