Ah .... there's nothing like a good story!

Since our family owns various books on tape and they are readily available to our children, I have noticed that our girls --- on their own initiative --- frequently opt to listen to a book on tape rather than watching a video. As they listen to a book, they frequently will work on various art projects.  What I have found most useful about audio books is the ability to expose my children to classics like Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott years before they would actually read it!

In no way do I mean to infer or imply that listening to audio cassette books on tape are to substitute or replace families reading aloud to one another in the evening. However, audio cassette books on tape have many strong points.

• audio books are an excellent method of opening up the classics to children at much younger ages than they would normally be exposed.
  
• vocabulary building, listening skills, reading like one speaks, modelling, reading practice
  
• learning new and various phraseology along with aiding accurate pronunciations of complex words, dialects, technical terms, foreign language terms, etc.
  
• reinforces link between the spoken and printed word
  
• aids comprehension skills, helps children develop own reading voice, improves reading level, increases fluency not to mention aiding independent reading skills
  
• helps develop a positive impact on reading literature
  
• great entertainment --- you cannot help but come under the spell of good literature (not to mention a break for mom and dad's reading voice!)
  
• helps interpretation, aids in comprehending word pictures, and induces a child/young adult to focus
  
• models intonation (speaking skills), helps a child/ young adult obtain the rhythm of language
  
• terrific opportunity to listen to talented individuals interpret character emotions, scenes, etc.
  
• a helpful prerequisite prior to seeing a stage production of the particular story/play your family has heard on audio cassettes/CDs as your child(ren)/young adults will already be familiar with the plot
  
• wonderful for camping/plane/train/car trips (we use books on tape for our Saturday Night Snack Tray)

We tend to use only abridged audiobooks.  Why?  I want my children to read the book for themselves!  Then, we compare and contrast the abridged audiobook with the book to determine what was left out.  This opens up a huge area of discussion as to why various parts of a book would not be included (too expensive, lose an audience for too much detail, etc.)  The only times we use unabridged audiobooks is for: