AudibleKids.com Offers 4,000 Kids' Books

Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 7/29/2008

Audible.com now has a kid-centric offshoot. Launched this spring, Audiblekids.com has about 4,000 titles, categorized by age, grade, and subject.

Parents create profiles for themselves and their kids, who are then free to browse titles that are created within parameters set by their caretakers. The audiobooks—which cost either under $5 or between $10 and $20—are playable on a range of digital devices, including phones, PDAs, and iPods.

Audiblekids.com bills itself as an “engaging, interactive community of parents, their kids, and educators that promotes the fun of storytelling.” There’s also a social networking component that allows adults to find what other families with children in the same age group are listening to. Both adults and kids can review books or create top lists.

While there are reviews and top lists on the site, it’s hard to know how engaged or interactive the Audiblekids.com users are. A spokesperson for Audible.com refused to release sales or membership figures, nor any specifics about use or interest by libraries.

But there’s at least one young adult literature specialist contributing: Teri Lesesne, “the goddess of young adult literature,” according to her blog, and a professor of Library Science at Sam Houston State University in Texas. The author of two books about engaging young adults in a love of reading, Lesesne sits on the Young Adult Library Services Association committee that in January gave the inaugural Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production.

"From the perspective of someone who loved audiobooks, I think Audible.com will appeal to people looking to download titles for children, tweens, and teens," Lesesne says. " As technology progresses, I do think downloads will become the preferred method of accessing audiobooks."

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