I honestly don't know how I could homeschool without audio books, and with Librivox just about any great classic is free.
The tricky thing with Librivox is that since all of the readers are volunteers, the quality is not consistent. In preparation for an 8,000 mile road trip, I spent hours and hours browsing the catalog and listening to different readers and have found many very well done books and a few absolute gems!
Now I'm sharing that list with you.
By the way, listening to books in the car is a fantastic strategy. Not only do you all get to experience the book together, but it can really make for peaceful drives, with everyone intently listening. We drove over 8,000 miles a few years ago, and audio books were a big part of that trip, we never even used the built in DVD player in our car (even though we brought a few DVDs along "just in case").
So dive into these classics, whether in your car, in the house or on individual mp3 players, you can't go wrong with these great books.
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Even though we enjoy these readers, before downloading any book, listen to the a bit of the first chapter online to see how you like the reader.
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Click on the reader's name to go directly to their Librivox page and see all the books they have worked on. I am just listing some favorite books they have read below.
And for a consistent experience with a book, choose those read by a solo reader and not a collaborative group, as sometimes you can come across a chapter or two that you just can't listen to because of the reader's voice.
Tip: On their Librivox page click on "Solo" near the top left to get works read solo by the selected reader.
** Our very favorite readers
Karen Savage ** - Fantastic American and British accents - our absolute favorite reader.
Anne of Green Gables series
The Secret Garden
A Little Princess
The Railway Children
Jane Austen books
Tales from Shakespeare
John Lieder **
The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
The Adventures of Reddy Fox and others in the same series
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
Mark F. Smith **
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Pinocchio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Call of the Wild
Captains Courageous
The Gettysburg Address
Give Me Liberty speech
Great Expectations
Robinson Crusoe
Swiss Family Robinson
The Wind in the Willows
Laurie Ann Walden
The Book of Dragons
Old Mother West Wind
Mother West Wind's Children
Laura Caldwell - a southern twang, a little sing-songy
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Beautiful Girlhood
American History Stories
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Sibella Denton
Cranford by Gaskell
Emma by Jane Austen
Four Great Americans
History of Egypt 1-3
Kalynda
Historical Tales 1-6
Phil Chenevert - a bit sing-songy
Just So Stories
Aesop's Fables
As A Man Thinketh
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook
The Jungle Book
Pinocchio
Pollyanna
Abagail Rasmussen
Little Women
Kara Shallenberg
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
A Christmas Carol
Heidi
A Little Princess
Our Island Story
Poems Every Child Should Know
The Secret Garden
Swiss Family Robinson
This Country of Ours
Treasure Island
Lee Ann Howlett
Understood Betsy
Elizabeth Klett
The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy
The Children of Odin
Jane Eyre
A Little Princess
Jane Austen - several
Mark Harris - Voice sounds a bit like a news reporter
Reads several G. A. Henty books
If you find other great readers on Librivox, please share them in the comments. Thanks!
You might also like this post: Getting Started with Inspiring Classics .
Karen R Savage, is a savant and a saint!
John Greenman is a great reader with a great voice, perfect for the Mark Twain material he reads for. 4.9 stars out of 5.
Tadgh Hynes, is a brilliant reader, he manages to keep all the characters voices as you imagine they would be. I have listened to two of his book readings and have been enthalled by each, although David Copperfield is wonderful.
We really enjoyed Phil Chenevert’s Wizard of Oz series.
Adrian Praetzellis is an excellent reader and has recorded many books for Librivox including “The Thirty-Nine Steps”.