Have a listen to these fantastic audio excerpts from popular books like Skellig, How to Train your Dragon and Grandpa’s Great Escape! It’s highly entertaining listening to famous voices – authors, actors, musicians, comedians, etc. – read aloud our favourite stories, plus you might even discover a brand new title that you then really have to go read for yourself! 😀

If wonderful storytelling wasn’t reason enough, check out these extra benefits of listening to stories. Audiobooks –

• Introduce pupils to books above their reading level
• Model good interpretive reading
• Teach critical listening
• Highlight the humour in books
• Introduce new genres that pupils might not otherwise consider
• Introduce new vocabulary and/or help with pronunciation; 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, or on holidays
• Recapture “the essence and the delights of hearing stories beautifully told by extraordinarily talented storytellers” (Baskin & Harris, 1995, p. 376) – Adapted from: Denise Johnson/Reading Rockets