Audiobooks & Playaway Display

Our first summer display is up and will stick around for just about 2 weeks before our Summer Reading Program begins and the table display changes every week!  I often like to acknowledge our audiobooks during the beginning of the summer to remind our families of the great resources we have while traveling over summer vacation.  Our library also has purchased a number of Playaways for children (we gear ours toward the older/middle grade crowd for the most part) as another form of listening to a book.  For those of you unfamiliar with Playaways, they are your typical Listening Library (or other audiobook), but rather than being on a CD format, these audiobooks come in their own unit – all you need to do is plug in some headphones and press play!  We have gotten some great feedback from kids and parents about these devices and I hope we’ll continue ordering some popular children’s titles to our collection.

For our display, my co-worker came up with “Reading On The Go” – a perfect theme for summer traveling.  Because we live so close to the Jersey shore, a lot of families spend weekends, weeks, or even the whole summer just a short drive away.  And audiobooks are a great option for kids in the car.

We have also discovered that when parents come in with concerns about their child’s reading comprehension – many have luck borrowing both the book and audiobook for their child.  By listening and following along to the story with the physical books, kids have a better chance to understand what is happening and be able to discuss it afterward.

As far as what titles, I selected for the table… I tried to grab things that kids are familiar with – such as The Lightning Thief, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Magic Treehouse Series.  But I always hope kids will find something new they love too – Eoin Colfer’s new book The Reluctant Assassin, an informational text audiobook – Bomb and a local story – Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Hopefully, families will peruse our collection and grab a few titles for the summer.