Books on Tape for the Preschool Roadtripper

As much as I enjoy introducing my kids to punk rock at an early age (ok, so maybe not just punk rock or even The Beatles....Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is still Xander's favorite composition), sometimes the kids are not interested in listening to just music. When traveling and trying to keep the boys entertained, we know we need to mix things up.

We are lucky that both Xander and Caleb both enjoy and appreciate books. Xander, in particular, really enjoys story time. Sometimes we'll tell them one of their favorites - Hansel and Gretel or The Three Little Pigs. Or, we'll just make up a story and then Xander, who is 4, will as well.

But recently we've discovered that the concept of books on tape, or in this case stories on tape works great for kids on road trips. They're actually much more fun than I would have imagined. Often times, just as is the case with books on tape, famous actors or the authors themselves, if they are interesting, will narrate. For example, Shel Silverstein narrates his own poems, and "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is quickly becoming a preschooler books on tape favorite. Perhaps when the boys get just a wee bit older we'll expose them to his less kid friendly works, but for now we'll skip over "Is She On Qualudes?" from the rotation.

On the Winnie the Pooh stories, Dame Judi Dench as the narrator! I never would have put M and Pooh together, but she does a great job as one would expect.

But, by far the boys' favorite story right now is "The Story of Peter Rabbit". Meryl Streep narrates this one, but the boys like it for the mix of story and music. For me, the music is a bit odd and dated. It starts with an acid jazz intro reminiscent of the music they used to play as you entered the United terminal at O'Hare (ok, really odd reference but the similarity is striking). Then it goes into a series George Shearing influenced piano interludes. But in the story, whenever Peter gets into trouble and gets chased by Mr. McGregor, the music gets faster and the boys begin to laugh hysterically. Now, they even start to laugh ahead of time in anticipation, since they've heard the story so many times.

I've downloaded a few other of these stories as well. One of them is "Pecos Bill", featuring Robin Williams and music by Ry Cooder. I'm entertained by it, so I'm hoping this one will be a hit with the boys as well. That is, if they'd ever let us put something else on besides Peter Rabbit.