Come Listen To This Book!

I've been listening to audiobooks on the way to work for about 2 1/2 years now.  This is a great way to stay up to date on books I'm considering purchasing for my school's library...also helps me to catch up on books I've been meaning to read--an endless task.  I have made it through 7 audiobooks this school year and just keep going back to the public library for more.  Listening to audiobooks on a consistent basis lets me realize what power they hold. Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, was more authentic while listening to him read than had I just read the physical book.  Many nonfiction books are easier for me to listen to on audio then they are to read.  

The above combined with research I knew and have been reading about in regards to audiobooks in the classroom made me realize how essential I should make a listening center in my library.  This year, I set up 4 book CD's in the computer and prop the book up by the tower, so students could see their choices. This listening experience spans kindergarten-5th grade.  This past week, all the grades got to enjoy audio during centers.  Even the preschoolers listened to the audio of a book as a class while I turned the pages.  To them, it was a whole new way to listen to a story.

  

All grades listened to the books, Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord, Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr., Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson, and When I Woke Up I Was a Hippopotamus by Tom MacRae.  That's right, every grade listened to these picturebook audiobooks. My goal is to change the audiobooks once a month since they have library centers only twice a month (during weeks they checkout).  The offerings will only expand to older picturebooks and short story or poetry collections since they only have 8-12 minutes at the center.

Students will have a choice to listen to another audio once the current audio they have is done or fill out a review of the book they just finished.  These reviews will be hung up by the listening center for other students to read.  I'm not requiring them to do this because I want the listening/reading to be enjoyed and not another area where they have to fret about something to write out.

In addition, I purchased multi-headphone splitter for students to listen to the same book and I recommend doing this if you only have one or two electronic platforms to offer students to listen to audio. This type of splitter is available via this link.

"Headphones on books" image courtesy of renjith krishnan/freedigitalphotos.net

Do you know what goes bump in the night?

Recommended for grades 4-8

I would always walk past The Last Apprentice series books’ by Joseph Delaney while working at Borders, with the thought that it was just some Harry Potter wannabe.  Then, I noticed that the newer titles in the series picked up in popularity toward the last few years I was working.  A tiny seed had planted itself on my “to-read” shelf.  Finally, this past December, I decided to check out the audio book from the library to listen to on the way to and from work.  I should be on the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production committee because I manage to listen to so many children’s books on tape.  And I fancy myself doing pretty well judging a book on its quality.  It’s really a simple piece of criteria I judge with…is the audio book fascinating enough that I want to listen to it before AND after work.  Will I trade my relaxing, music-filled, yet traffic-bound drive home for an audio book, which requires some concentration? 

I wasn’t even through the first disc of Revenge of the Witch and I wanted to write this post, which lands the book in another rare category I have for my blog (it’s under very rare circumstances that I post about a book before finishing).  Delaney is an incredible writer!  One reviewer said The Last Apprentice series was a step above Goosebumps.  I disagree.  Delaney’s old world setting mixed with descriptive language about the things that go bump in the night—such as boggarts, witch’s and ghouls—is more than a step above Goosebumps (and I love Goosebumps).  It almost reminds me of a younger version of The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. 

The job of the Spook is to take care of all that gives others nightmares—it’s a lonely and tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.  Thomas Ward, the twelve-year-old protagonist, who is the Spook’s newest apprentice, has a strong voice in this book.  The reader feels for him throughout the first book.  Tom and the Spook complement each other in this book and make for intriguing interactions.  The sense of adventure and suspense is palpable as Tom is tricked and befriended by a young witch, who comes from a family of highly malevolent witches.  Scenes throughout this book are creepy enough to keep even the most ardent scary story readers on their toes. 

I ordered this book for my library because I knew my 4^th and 5^th graders would eat this story up.

Delaney, J. (2005). Revenge of the witch. New York, NY: Harper Children's Audio.