Summer is almost here and road-trips, along with time spent around the house will become the normal routine.  I thought it might be fun to share some fun audiobooks to have on hand for those lazy summer afternoons, when your kids want screen time and entertainment, but you would rather not set them in front of a screen.  And if you have a road-trip coming up, take a look over this list and see if something grabs your interest. There are lots of good books to listen to, so I hope you find a few on this list for your family to try this summer.

Also, it’s hard to put an age recommendation on audiobooks, because kids are all different.  What one five year old finds entertaining, another may find completely too hard too follow.  You will have to do a little experimenting to find what works best for your family dynamic. I have found that many of these my 2 year old will sit through, but he doesn’t always understand and thats fine.  Also, these audiobooks are one’s my husband and I can listen to and not be completely bored out of our minds either.  Because that’s important too.

1 – How To Train Your Dragon

Read By: David Tennant

Did you realize this was a book series before it was a movie?  Well, the movie is fun, but the book series is even better! In this first book, we follow the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III as he tries to pass the important test of his Viking clan, by catching and training a dragon.

2 – Matlida

Read By: Kate Winslet

Matilda is a brilliant little girl with so much sweetness, you’d think everyone would love her.  Unfortunately, her parents think she is a nuisance and too smart for her own britches. Finally, old enough to attend school Matilda instantly loves her teacher Miss Honey, but the Trunchbull is another story.

3 – The Green Ember

Read By: Joel Clarkson

Heather and Picket are extraordinary rabbits with ordinary lives until calamitous events overtake them, spilling them into a cauldron of misadventures. They discover that their own story is bound up in the tumult threatening to overwhelm the wider world.

4 – Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

Read By: Michael Page

The tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been forced into a life of crime. One fateful afternoon, Peter steals a mysterious box that contains three magical pairs of eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel beyond the known world and rescue a lost kingdom from its treacherous ruler.

5 – The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

Read By:Kathrine Kellgren

When children are behaving poorly, the old saying: “They must have been raised by wolves,” is often muttered.  With the Incorrigible children this is actually the case. They were discovered in the forests of Ashton Place; where Alexander keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia has a bark that is worse than her bite; and Beowulf is alarmingly good at chasing squirrels. Luckily, Miss Penelope Lumley is no ordinary governess.

6 – Around The World In Eighty Days

Read By: Jim Dale

Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, and undertakes the adventure of a lifetime, daring to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. With his valet Passepartout in tow, they begin their journey, while being tracked by the intrepid Detective Fix, a bounty hunter certain he is on the trail of a notorious bank robber.

7 – The Ramona Quimby Series

Read By: Stockard Channing

Ramona is a spitfire little girl, living on Klickitat Street with her mother, father, and older sister Beezus. Ramona’s innocent antics, while living through childhood are relatable and entertaining.  

8 – The Wind In The Willows (BBC Children’s Classics)

Read By: Dramatization

I love these dramatizations, because they are filled with different voices and sound effects. Rat, Mole, Badger and the preposterous Mr Toad and his road-hogging new motor car, are off on adventure and excitement. Their crazy adventures on and off the river and at Toad Hall will have everyone listening.

9 – The Railway Children (BBC Children’s Classics)

Read By: Dramatization

Again, I love these dramatizations, because they are filled with different voices and sound effects. The Waterbury children are forced to move with their mother from their luxurious home to the suburbs of London, after the stage disappearance of their father. The children’s adventure continues with the railway line near their new house.  

10 – Masterminds

Read By: Ramon De Ocampo, Kelly Jean Badgley, Tarah Consoli

Eli and his friends have never left Serenity, New Mexico, a town where honesty and integrity are valued above all else. However, all this changes when they bike to the edge of town and something so crazy and unexpected happens, that everything changes.

11 – Charlottes Web

Read By: E. B. White and George Plimpton

Charlotte is no ordinary spider.  Wilbur is a sweet little pig wanting to avoid the destiny that befalls most of the porcine persuasion.  Determined to save her new friend Charlotte spins the words “Some Pig” in her web to convince the farmer that Wilbur is no ordinary pig.

12 – The BFG

Read By: David Walliams
The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is the kindest, most friendly of all the giants.  So, when Sophie lands in his care, she is lucky that he is a snozzcumber guzzler and not a bone-crunching human eating giant. When Sophie sees how the giants treat the BFG and hears of how they galavant off each night to eat chiddlers, she decides she must stop them.  

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