TBR Audio Books - Keeping Kids Engaged in Reading

With two kids (ages 14 and 11) we spend lots of time in the car over the summer months.  Last summer we listened to several books on CD during this down time.

We continued the audio book reading as a family during a trip over spring break.  We listened to Flush by Carl Hiaasen and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  Before our trip over spring break, I requested about twenty audio books from the library.  We read the summaries over dinner and then narrowed the books down to our TBR pile for our trip.

This summer we made a list of books we wanted to listen to and now have a stack of TBR audio books (see above) for the car.  The stack keeps growing as we find more books we want to listen to.  We already finished Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli and are now listening to Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt.

I have found this is a great way to connect with my kids and their reading.  It goes beyond the car as we find ourselves discussing the books at the dinner table and other places.  We also enjoy the time spent in the car.  I can't think of a better thing to do in the car to engage my kids in reading and thinking in a time that would otherwise be spent with them listening to their iPods and unengaged and disconnected.

Listening to audio books in the car can be done with kids of any age, not just pre-teens and teenagers.  James Patterson's website READKIDDOREAD is a great resource for finding books that engage kids of any age.  Create a TBR list with your kids and check the audio books out at your local library.  Enjoy your time spent in the car with your kids!