Audio books are sound educational tools



Recently, a friend's blog mentioned about her trying out some audio books when she and her children were travelling in a car. That struck a chord with me. I am very busy with life, yet I want to read books. So what I have done is to subscribe to blinklist (a service that summarises books) and Audiophile (a audiobook seller). Thus far, I have been enjoyed my short summaries and listening to books being read out loud while I am driving.

This friend's post got me thinking that since it worked for her, I can try getting an audiobook for my son so that he can listen to stories in the car. It is good for him to practise his listening comprehension skills, as well as to listen to crisp spoken English.

The book I chose to buy was 'The Book with No Pictures' by BJ Novak (writer and producer of The Office). It was an excellent book and since there are 'no pictures', it works perfectly fine as an audiobook. The book was real good and my son was very tickled by the story. The first time he listened to it, he wanted to listen to it again and again. We heard the story at least five times in the journey up to my in-laws' house. When he reached, he wanted to let his cousins hear it again. So I had to loan my handphone to him so that his cousins could hear it.

This concept is not new - breaking the fourth wall. What is the fourth wall? It means the characters of a book, movie or theatre talks to the audience. In this case, the person reading aloud (most likely an adult) talks to directly to the reader and is forced to make silly sounds to make the reader laugh. Quite a twist to the usual breaking of the fourth wall.

Now I am thinking of getting Dr. Seuss books so that he can hear them in the car. We just got a Dr. Seuss book, and he seems to enjoy it. So hopefully he stops playing Minecraft in the car and listens to a story.

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