audiobooks – Kidliterate

April 26, 2021August 25, 2021

Technology That Helps Us Read, Listen & Play

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Behind the books we read, the podcasts we love, the movies we watch, and the music we listen to are the methods by which we consume the media. From smart speakers to apps, headphones to charging solutions, today’s episode is all about the tech in our lives that helps us consume the media we love. As always, we finish the episode with what we’re reading and what you’re reading. Join us!

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Our family uses Sonos speakers enabled with Google Assistant
We love the Spotify Premium Family Plan, and we touched on Spotify Kids
To check out ebooks and audiobooks for free using our public library card, we use the Libby and Hoopla apps
We also have an Audible subscription for audiobooks we plan to listen to over and over again
Allegra and Reid have Kindle Paperwhites, which we send ebooks to wirelessly
We talked more about kids reading on Kindles in this episode
We use Mabels Labels to stake our claim on chargers and cords
This Fast Charging Station for Multiple Devices helps our family keep devices charged and organized
Allegra got her latest book recommendations from an issue of The Week Junior

Allegra recently read 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass, as well as Shaking Up the House by Yamile Saied Méndez
Sarah is reading Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

What you’re reading:

Heidi emailed to share that her 2.5 year old loves Dinotopia, A Land Apart from Time: 20th Anniversary Edition by James Gurney. They also love the Narwhal and Jelly books by Ben Clayton and The Berenstain Bears books by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Heidi herself is reading The New Jim Crow (Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness) by Michelle Alexander

Email us at hello@kidliteratepodcast.com – we’d love to hear from you!

Image by ar130405 from Pixabay

February 15, 2021August 26, 2021

Getting Started With Audiobooks (Plus Audiobook Recommendations For Preschoolers Through Teens)

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Listening to audiobooks is a great way to pass the time on car rides or during long days at home, and we have some specific suggestions for HOW to get your kids hooked on listening to great books. In today’s episode we share ideas for getting started with audiobooks (even with very young children), plus some specific titles that we love for little kids and several more our bigger kids have been loving lately. As always, we wrap up the episode with what we’ve been reading and what YOU’ve been reading. Enjoy!

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Sarah briefly mentioned The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
Your public library most likely uses the Libby app to borrow digital titles (including audiobooks) for FREE, and read/listen to them on your preferred device
When Violet was a preschooler we got a LOT of mileage out of Disney stories, which you can find free on Spotify (essentially the audio versions of familiar animated films)
The Frog & Toad Audio Collection was a favorite with little listeners
Allegra and Sarah love listening to the Little House audiobooks, long after we’ve read them in print. We enjoyed The Long Winter and Little Town on the Prairie most recently
Violet loves The Bad Beginning, A Multi-Voice Recording: A Series of Unfortunate Events #1
Allegra and Violet are currently listening to The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell
Reid and Violet love the Guinea Dog collection of audiobooks
We all thoroughly enjoyed The Tale of Desperaux
If you haven’t already listened, check out Episode 02, which has more audiobook recommendations!

Sarah is reading All Creatures Great & Small by James Herriott (and loving it!). Allegra just finished Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, and is thinking about starting A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

What you’re reading:

Jenna from British Columbia wrote to use to share what she and daughters Neva and Tessa are reading:

Neva (age 6) is loving The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
Tessa (age 3) loves all the Pigeon books by Mo Willems
Jenna is reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Email us at hello@kidliteratepodcast.com – we’d love to hear from you!

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

November 30, 2020August 26, 2021

Our Family’s Favorites Lately (Books, Audiobooks, Movies, YouTube Channels, Apps & More!)

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Today’s episode is a BIG roundup of the books, movies, and other media our family has been loving lately. We cover everything from little kid tablet games to YouTube art tutorials, sci-fi books to documentary series. And, as always, we share what we’ve been reading AND what you’ve been reading. Join us!

StoryWorth

This episode is sponsored by StoryWorth, a perfect gift for grandparents and other loved ones this holiday season. No shipping is required, and you can gift a subscription right up until Christmas (great for last-minute shopping!). Save $10 at storyworth.com/kidlit.

In the order we discussed them…

We did another roundup of our family’s favorites (with different recommendations, of course!) back in March, in Episode 10
Just Add Magic (an Amazon Prime original series)
Sci-Fi books in general, and specifically Ready Player One, Ready Player Two, The Martian, Artemis, and Armada
Christmas movies in general, and specifically Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch (the 2018 animated version), Home Alone, Frosty The Snowman and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Christmas music via Spotify curated playlists like this one
Harry Potter audiobooks on Audible
How-to-draw YouTube channels: Allegra likes Draw So Cute, and Reid likes Art For Kids Hub
Reid loves origami YouTube videos, like these (we’ll talk more about paper crafts in our next episode!)
As a family we’re still loving The Amazing Race, and Allegra loves watching The Office
Violet (age 7) rediscovered the Toca Town app, and we love all the Toca Boca games and bundles
Tiny World, a docuseries from Apple TV+, is blowing our minds
Magic Camp, a Disney+ original, was a hit with all three Powers kids
Emma Bland Smith is a longtime listener AND a children’s book author we love. She recently sent our family copies of Claude, The Pig War, Odin, and the Maddy McGuire, CEO chapter book series.
We love the NYTimes Cooking App for finding and saving recipes that the whole family will eat

Allegra is reading Armada by Ernest Cline
Sarah is re-reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

What you’re reading:

Valerie wrote to say that she and 7-year-old Samantha have been enjoying the Wildwood Chronicles series by Colin Meloy.

Email us at hello@kidliteratepodcast.com – we’d love to hear from you!

March 9, 2020August 27, 2021

Our Family’s Favorites Lately (Podcasts, TV, Audiobooks, Apps & More!)

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We have recommendations to share across a bunch of genres this week! Listen for a grab bag episode full of podcast, audiobook, television, app, and video game recommendations from our family to yours–plus, as always, we share what WE’re reading and what YOU’re reading. Join us!