Favorite book series available on audible for kids?

[OneStepAtATime]

Trying to expand our horizons here.  DS prefers a book series to a single book.  He needs them available on Audible if possible.  He loves history based but other options are good, too.  He isn't terribly tolerant of lots of random shifts in personality or tons of inconsistency in the plot.  Anything for Middle School or above for "reading" level, although upper elementary might be good if it is well written.  Since he is 10 I would prefer "topics" not be too advanced, though.  :)

[FairProspects]

Has he done all the Beverly Cleary and Rick Riordan series? My 10 y.o. loves The Red Pyramid series and my 8 y.o. loves the Percy Jackson series. They both loved The Candymakers but it is not a series. Ramona & Henry Huggins are near constant favorites by both. The Dark is Rising sequence is one of my favorites from childhood and is perfect for that age. I have not read them myself, but the boys enjoyed The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series too.

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Cool suggestions, FP!

 

DS has read ALL of the Red Pyramid and Percy Jackson books plus all of the available short stories and support material many times over.  :)  He's a big fan because he loves Ancient History.

 

We have not gotten through all the Beverly Cleary books and I had honestly forgotten those.  I don't know the Candymakers.  The Dark Rising sounds familiar, but I don't think I have read it.  I know DS hasn't.  Same with The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.  

 

Thanks so much, FP!  Some good places to start.  You rock.  :)

[Timberly]

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[FairProspects]

A Wrinkle in Time is also a series. My boys also love Oz (all 14 of them). And yes, we have done the whole Indian in the Cupboard series too, but I'm not sure it is on Audible. I think we had to use Learning Ally for that one. Do you have access to Learning Ally too, One Step?

[LaughingCat]

We have the Enchanted Forest series on Audible and DD listens to it over and over.  

She also loved Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (and it's prequel  Starry River of the Sky although not as much) - although the love has fallen off now (whereas Enchanted Forest has maintained over many, many listenings).

 

She also currently loves Tuesdays at the Castle -- although it has a girl main character and she has been less enamored with it's 2 follow-ups.

I think the rest of the books she loves are not series or more girly or both.

(Note: I enjoyed all the books I listed as well)

 

[OneStepAtATime]

You all rock!  Thanks so much everyone!  And Timberly thanks for asking your kids for recs.  So cool.  Have I mentioned the warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I hop on the LC board?  You all are awesomeness incarnate.  :)

 

DS burns through books so quickly, even "re-reading", that I am having trouble keeping up.  I wanted him to have several really good options for Christmas gifts (he is also getting a Great Courses set on the history of math that thankfully went on sale at a much, much reduced rate).  Unfortunately, the bulk of the books I read at his age are not available in audio book form and many aren't even in print anymore.  I read some fairly obscure works.  

 

Anyway, thanks again.

[Timberly]

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[Pen]

Don't know about the Kindle and audible aspect (I may be making my own post trying to understand them since we are still back in maybe not 20th Cen, but not yet up to current date either), but series ideas for someone who likes Red Pyramid would include

 

John Flanagan's Rangers Apprentice and Brotherband Chronicles  series (there are a lot of anachronisms and errors like horns on Scandian helmets, eating New World foods in an apparently pre-New World time for Europe, but if he likes history he may well enjoy finding those) are fun and exciting like Rick Riordan's books and even more related to history in a fantasy way albeit with a lot of license taken--they are not especially fantasy myth based. The two series overlap each other with characters showing up in both series.

 

Prydain chronicles starting with The Book of Three (Celtic myth based), excellent writing IMO, highly worth reading. And, not a series, but if he's not read it he might like Time Cat (very much history related) (all by Lloyd Alexander). Time Cat is less advanced in level than the Prydain books.

 

Possibly the Nicholas Flamel Alchemist series of books, though I think it is at a far less good quality than the ones above, and maybe suited to a bit older also. Cannot recall author or exact titles.

 

Has he read Harry Potter books?  A Series of Unfortunate Events?  

 

Little House and Rose years series books? Mary Poppins is a series and you get occasional references to history such as the English King who burned the cakes...   Ds liked recognizing that from SOTW.

 

Not a series, but if he might want a long fiction book that's history related and is ready for it, A Tale of Two Cities is as exciting as Rick Riordan, IMO. You could scaffold it with movie version first. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks, Pen.  So many cool looking options.

 

A Tale of Two Cities looks interesting for a few months down the road.  It will tie in well with some other things I was thinking of doing.   And DS is aware of who Charles Dickens is because he saw him on Doctor Who.   :lol:   By the way, there are several movie and tv mini series versions.  Any suggestions on what might be well done and close to the book?

[Lecka]

I know Magyk by Angie Sage is on audiobook at our library.  I have been reading this to my son (we are on book 2, he can read 4-5 pages on his own).  At first he needed a lot of help keeping up with the plot and characters. But now that he knows the characters and how the world works (how the magic works) he can understand the plot.  I really like this series.

 

He also really likes the first few Ranger's Apprentice books, I read him the first couple over the summer.  We did not keep going, mainly because of Origami Yoda.  He can read Origami Yoda on his own.  Ranger's Apprentice are too hard for him right now, maybe he could read a page.  But -- he did well with understanding the plots.

 

He is not interested in Tuesdays at the Castle b/c at his school, it is a girl book.  I think he would like it anyway, but whatever.  He might still like to read it.

 

I like Brandon Mull, I have read Fablehaven, it is a longer series.  My son did not like it when I read him a few pages, but I think he would like it when he is older.  We got Sky Kingdom Book 1 on audiobook and he loved it, it is a real favorite book to him.  But -- I just got him Book 2 in hardback, so the series is not complete.  We haven't read it b/c we are reading Magyk instead.  I also think he might read this on his own.  It is not as hard as Magyk in my opinion, but may still be too hard for him.  

 

For a series kind-of similar to Rick Riordan, I tried Underworlds by Tony Abbott.  The first one was really good, but we lost steam a little.  I don't think they are as good as Rick Riordan, but they have a similar thing, so I think they are worth a shot.  They are 4 books, they all are about a different Underworld having creatures break free.  I learned about (I am blanking on the name) an ancient culture from the Bible (I want to say Babylon? is that where Daniel was in captivity?)  and so that was cool, it was a different Underworld than in the Rick Riordan books.  But the books seemed to get repetitive.  

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks, Lecka!

 

I think we have Fablehaven in print form.  The kids were too young when we got it but I skimmed it and it seemed good.

 

DS just expressed interest in the City of Ember series as he was going to bed.  We own it but have never read it.  We have a printed version, though.  He saw it on the shelf and wants the Kindle/Audible version so I may do that as an interim fun reading option to tide him over until Christmas.  

 

I am looking at that thing Timberly linked where you pay a monthly fee and have access to over 7000 books in kindle/audible format every month.  I am unclear how it works, though.  Still digging in.  And I want to make sure I still have parental control.  I am hoping I could just place books on there as a Christmas gift that I think he would like (so many interesting ones have been mentioned on this thread) and he could choose from the selection available.  Still gives him control without it being a free for all.  

[MyLittleBears]

My boys LOVED the bunnicula series by James Howe

[Pen]

Thanks, Pen.  So many cool looking options.

 

A Tale of Two Cities looks interesting for a few months down the road.  It will tie in well with some other things I was thinking of doing.   And DS is aware of who Charles Dickens is because he saw him on Doctor Who.   :lol:   By the way, there are several movie and tv mini series versions.  Any suggestions on what might be well done and close to the book?

 

When we could we used BBC miniseries of many Dickens novels from around 1980 available at our library, which tended to follow the Dickens books quite well. They didn't have it for Tale of Two Cities though (I think one was made, just not available to us), so we used the much shorter version with as I recall, Chris Sarandon playing the lead male roles. It was very well done, and worked to scaffold, though it cut out much of the book.

[Pen]

Re-thinking about age 10 reader, I think you might possibly want him to read Brotherband series before Ranger's Apprentice. It would give away some plot aspects of RA to read B first, since events of B series take place about midway to 3/4's way through events of RA. But the Brotherband characters, even though older than your ds, are more concerned with boy adventure stuff--a "younger" feeling adventure (dealing with bullies, making friends, designing fast boat, honor, and so on) that all takes place over a pretty short time of their lives. The RA books start when the characters are 15, so similar issues in the early level books, but follow along into the time the characters are adults, so the later ones, anyway have more ... it is hard to explain exactly ... not explicit sex or anything like that, but there is more to do with becoming adults, transition from teen to adult as a theme behind the adventures, rather than proving oneself as moving from little kid to teenager.

 

My ds read part of RA series first, then read Brotherband, and then finished RA, which is another option that leaves the older RA books till later, and does not give away some plot elements from early RA books by having already encountered the outcome in the Brotherband books.

 

You might also want to get them as print books--maybe around 11-12yo, and see if he can read them himself then. They have a good blend of not terribly hard reading with much action and excitement to help keep the reader motivated.

 

I tend to use audio books for classics, and to use the fun current adventures books series for motivating actual print reading. I read the beginning of Prydain series aloud, and all of Little House was read by me when ds was very young, or done on audio later. But Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Carter Kane, Ranger's Apprentice, Brotherband, were all ones that ds read himself when he was at that point. My ds needed these really good action packed stories to pull him in and keep him going.

[OneStepAtATime]

Re-thinking about age 10 reader, I think you might possibly want him to read Brotherband series before Ranger's Apprentice. It would give away some plot aspects of RA to read B first, since events of B series take place about midway to 3/4's way through events of RA. But the Brotherband characters, even though older than your ds, are more concerned with boy adventure stuff--a "younger" feeling adventure (dealing with bullies, making friends, designing fast boat, honor, and so on) that all takes place over a pretty short time of their lives. The RA books start when the characters are 15, so similar issues in the early level books, but follow along into the time the characters are adults, so the later ones, anyway have more ... it is hard to explain exactly ... not explicit sex or anything like that, but there is more to do with becoming adults, transition from teen to adult as a theme behind the adventures, rather than proving oneself as moving from little kid to teenager.

 

My ds read part of RA series first, then read Brotherband, and then finished RA, which is another option that leaves the older RA books till later, and does not give away some plot elements from early RA books by having already encountered the outcome in the Brotherband books.

 

You might also want to get them as print books--maybe around 11-12yo, and see if he can read them himself then. They have a good blend of not terribly hard reading with much action and excitement to help keep the reader motivated.

 

I tend to use audio books for classics, and to use the fun current adventures books series for motivating actual print reading. I read the beginning of Prydain series aloud, and all of Little House was read by me when ds was very young, or done on audio later. But Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Carter Kane, Ranger's Apprentice, Brotherband, were all ones that ds read himself when he was at that point. My ds needed these really good action packed stories to pull him in and keep him going.

Thanks so much for the details, Pen.  I really appreciate you taking the time!  :)

[Pen]

Thanks so much for the details, Pen.  I really appreciate you taking the time!   :)

 

 

You're welcome!  Another thought: the Narnia series is much harder reading level, I think, than Brotherband or RA, and also more suited to younger audience, so maybe would be better for Audio, while maybe reserving RA and Brotherband for possible print reading in a year or so.  By the time he can read Narnia, he is likely to be past age to be interested in it (until he were to be an adult and enjoy it then maybe). But there is a better chance of reading level and enjoyment level for RA etc. coinciding within the next couple of years.

[OneStepAtATime]

I agree.  Narnia is harder reading, but the content would probably be more suited for now than for later.  We do have a CD version including sound effects and an orchestra that I tried DD with years and years ago.  She got so confused, but she doesn't do well with strictly auditory input. DS does.

[ElizabethB]

Anyone have LibriVox favorites? I am now using them for read aloud and need to choose our next one.I am loving the price!! 😀