There once was a little, orange record player. You know, the kind that had it’s own case that you could close up, tucking the electric cord inside and would play LPs or 45s if you hadn’t lost the little insert that made the tiny records fit on the turn table.

It followed me everywhere – on the bus downtown to see my mom at work, to school for show and tell, across the street to the neighbour kids houses who REALLY didn’t want to listen to the three records I always brought with me. Who could blame them? I wore grooves into the vinyl where the Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Thumbelina lived.

The day orangey and I discovered “audio books” is burned into my brain.

I was eight. Orangey was a lively two or three.

Yes, we’d been acquainted with recorded stories for a while. But, it was a big moment in both of our lives when we realized that our collection could expand exponentially with a simple trip to the library.

That’s where I first met Ferdinand and realized Sesame Street and Electric Company could be more “on-demand” than waiting for them to come on the television.

It rocked.

Orangey and I have since parted ways, and recreating the vinyl dynamic is a bit tricky 30 years later. But, audio books still have the same magical effect on our tiny person as they did on me those billion hours ago.

Lately, we’ve been all over the audio universe, listening to them in the car while running errands, trading TV for tales and just generally enjoying the preschool mania-soothing goodness that are stories in the CD player.

I have a few serious, practical reasons as parent to dig audio books:

1. A whacked out afternoon is nearly always turned into something a bit less traumatic with an hour of stories.
2. The whining from the backseat is nearly always turned into something a bit less traumatic with an hour of stories.
3. The tiny person will nearly always trade an hour in front of the tube (which always ends in drama) for an hours worth of stories.

Minus the drama factor (r.e. audio books save mama’s sanity), there are some serious benefits for the tiny person too.

1. She’s super creative after an hour of stories – very into acting out stories, creating her own, making up cool things to go with them.
2. She remembers them better than anything else. I’m always amazed.
3. She integrates the stories into everyday life. After a week of The Ugly Duckling she is now confident that “human mommies” lay eggs to have babies, just like duck mommies do. So cute.

Anyway, we’ve fallen in love and our favourites by a mile are from the absolutely incredible storytelling master Odds Bodkin

From the first time both of us listened to it, the tiny person and I found ourselves totally charmed by The Evergreens Gentle Tales of Nature on CD.

This collection of sweet folk tales set to folk music is truly magical. The first story in the collection, a Danish tale called The Evergreens, made such an impression on our daughter that she now runs around saying hello to all of the “kind, old evergreens” and asked her daddy to create her a fairy forest in her room - evergreens only.

Combine these stories with nature projects like creating Hand Trees or Magic Wands and you’ve got imagination running in full gear.

We read out loud all of the time. But, watching the effect that listening to stories has on her from a perspective that’s a bit removed has shown me the power of the spoken word.

Wow.

The Evergreens have been running around our CD player non-stop for the last couple of weeks. But, not to be missed is another Odds Bodkins gem The Hidden Grail, Sir Percival and the Fisherking.

This two-CD adventure takes you on a magical, musical adventure through Arthurian legend (told kid style). I love it because while the whole thing is about 90 minutes long, it’s all broken out into cool, short segments that make it perfect for the start and stop of daily errands in the car or to listen to during an afternoon of craft projects, goofing off or doing chores, even making dinner.

We L-O-V-E-D this story and found it very preschool-friendly in a knights, castles and adventure sort of way but not so kiddie that you 10-year-old wouldn’t love to listen to it all the same.

These are both at the local library (I wish they had more Odds Bodkins. But, these two are it). The great part, though, is his stories are downloadable right from Oddsbodkin.com.

We are about to check out The Teacup Fairy and launch into a whole new world of adventure (maybe combine the forest and the fairies once again).

I totally recommend these audio gems!

CD case covers courtesy of Oddsbodkin.com