Exciting New 2008 Odyssey Audiobook Award for Children and Young Adults

In 2008 the new popularity of audiobook's stimulatingreading fluency, expands vocabulary and increases
ability to inspire children and young adult's minds arecomprehension.
about to be honoured with a new award which is aStruggling students are easily distracted, find reading
stamp of excellence on par with the famed Newberyalone uninteresting or find discovering a book that
and Printz awards.appeals to them difficult when the range of visual
The newly created 2008 American Libraryimages available are so ever present.
Association's Odyssey Award for excellence inDigital Talking Books or audiobooks mean children can
children and young adult audiobooks rides the excitinglisten to the great stories with a computer, CD, MP3
worldwide trend in aural edutainment.or any other portable device such as an ipod or
In Germany March 2007 there is a whole fairiphone.
devoted to audiobooks. Nominations have just beenTalking Books really do make unique, perfect gifts for
announced in Cologne in March for the 2007 Germanthese reasons.
Audiobook Prize, which can be seen as the equivalentImagine what it would have been like growing up
of a German Oscar and are parallel to thelistening to:
celebrations of a highly respected literary festival.* Hans Christian Anderson
The children's section of the German audiobook* Mark Twain
convention was this year particualrly successful and* Sydney Newman
represent a large market for young European* Lewis Carroll
audiobook listeners.* CS Lewis
So get ready to explore and discover exciting storiesAudiobooks have been designed to not only
of adventures with famous authors of the newstimulate, educate and nurture imagination but also to
world! Exciting stories of adventure and spine tinglingentertain.
action..Audiobooks which have proven to be popular for
Fire breathing fantasy dragons, fairies, familyboys:
adventure and time machines...* The Book of Pirates
In the 1950s kids hid behind the lounge when* Treasure Island
Professor Bernard Quatermass battled aliens on the* Peter and the Starcatchers
BBC. ITV gave us Pathfinders in Space, the brainchildAudiobooks which have proven to be popular for
of Canadian Sydney Newman.girls:
These days, we face the many choices of providing* Matilda
education vs entertainment to children. Many people* Anne of Green Gables
attempt to read bedtime stories to their children but* Alice in Wonderland
after a busy work day time can slip away or beAudiobooks which have proven to be popular for
considerably shortened.preschoolers:
Altogether literacy and comprehension have been* A Bear Called Paddington
challenged in the last few years, even though there's* Bob The Builder
an overload of information!* Anderson's Fairy Tales
With quality audiobooks, at the click of a button yourAudiobooks which have proven to be popular for
child can be a pirate drifting off to a virtual treasureslightly older kids:
island or some far away galaxy within a blink of an* Harry Potter
eye and enjoy painless enriching learning too.* Dr Who
Recent research by teachers in Boston and San* Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator
Diego schools assessed students who used* The Chronicles of Narnia
audiobooks over a period of four to six weeks. They* Pendragon
found students using audiobooks not only read more,* A Series of Unfortunate Events
their reading over this period improved substantiallyThese are stories that help children to use language
compared to control groups who used text alone.with imagination. They learn the emotive language of
Test scores showed greater improvement in bothcolourful theatre, emotional self expression and
reading, comprehension and fluency. Students withspoken words they may not learn correctly if they
ADD and ADHD also showed improvements inwere to just read books.
concentration. This is great news regarding manyLife is an adventure as well as a learning experience
children who simply refuse to read.and Harry Potter's adventures never sounded so
Listening to audiobooks not only enhances verbalgood.
endurance when listening to information. It helps