Chime in with your favorite listen in the comments – do you love a great tear-jerker? Laugh at chick-lit girls-vs-guy humor? Languish while fantasizing about the bare-chested hero of a Regency bodice-ripper? I had great fun writing this article <http://bit.ly/AzaU3>about audiobook romances for Booklist Magazine, turning my ears to a genre I had never given much attention. But I found a fantastic bunch of titles for listeners from ages tween to 85, sweet to steamy, and girly to all-guy. But now I am looking for new romance audiobook titles to add to my listening list – so give me (and other Audiobooker readers) your suggestions for top romance titles, series, and narrators by adding a comment below. I will be thanking you as I plug in the headphones while hitting the treadmill, ready to be swept away by my new audiobook addiction: fresh hot romance!

Oh, and P.S. – “Inside the Audiobook Studio” will return next week – I am busily gathering a knockout feature on Listening Library’s audiobook production of Walter Dean Myer’s Riot.

I’ve mentioned the AUDIOBOOKS discussion group before, but want to give the online community another shout-out. Click here for how to sign up and join in the discussion of your favorite titles & narrators! The conversation has been lagging a bit, but I’m doing my part by recommending one of my all-time favorite audiobooks The Art of Racing in the Rain.  See the message below & my response:

From: George Hodgkins
Subject: Hello out there

It’s been very, very quiet around here recently. Kink of spooky. Good time to ask if anyone’s a fan of James Rollins’ audiobooks. I’m almost finished with “The Judas Strain” and have “The Last Oracle” queued up. I’m a fan of “potential end of the word as we know it unless X and Y find Z” fiction – though I’ll probably listen to “The Art of Racing in the Rain” before moving on to “The Last Oracle.” Anyone else like historical paranoia or talking dogs?

George

My response:

Oh, you MUST listen to The Art of Racing in the Rain – of the most amazing audiobooks I’ve ever clapped my ears on! And if you are at all a dog person, set aside some time to just stay still and listen – it’s that affecting. There are very, very few audiobooks that have stopped me in my tracks and demanded the attention of all my senses. I usually must be doing some automatic task to listen well – odd, but true – and typically if I sit still while listening, I lose my concentration and pick up something nearby to read. But Christopher Evan Welch took me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me so completely into his first-person narration as Enzo, the mixed breed dog who ruminates on the meaning of life and death. You will want to share this audiobook with everyone you know – I have and every single person has fallen in love with Enzo. Truly great listening for adults & teens

Mary Burkey

Thanks to Random House’s Science Fiction blog, Suvudu, for the link!

Click here for a link to the audio recording of our ALA session “Evaluating Audiobooks for Children & Teens” – with tips for anyone interested in learning how to talk the talk of audiobooks. Be sure to check out this post for the session notes, PowerPoint, and more. And if you’d like even more research and resources, I’ve gathered lots on this post. I am getting ready to put the tips into use myself while writing a review for The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, from Random House Audio – an audiobook so awesome that I wished the vacation car trip lasted longer so that I could listen more!

Talking the Talk: An Audiobook Lexicon

Sounds Good to Me: Listening to Audiobooks with a Critical Ear

ALA’s top audiobooks of 2008

Audio file of entire presentation

Why audiobooks? Listening…

• Increases fluency
• Expands listening skills
• Raises reading comprehension
• Enlarges vocabulary
• Boosts pronunciation skills
• Supports struggling readers
• Expands literature experiences for proficient readers
• Improves test scores

Increased fluency & interpretation

• Expert readers model fluent inflection & enunciation within the story’s narrative flow
• Narrator’s voice reveals punctuation, accents, dialects, and cultural vocal patterns
• Listeners hear the story through another reader’s voice, gaining deeper meaning

Audiobooks provide opportunity

• Comprehension level when listening is often two years above reading level, allowing struggling readers, English Language Learners, and those with learning differences to join the community of readers through audiobooks alone or when paired with text.

Building a community of readers

• Audiobooks allow all students access to classroom literature
• More time with text (or spoken text) = better vocabulary

Audiobook review sources

• Book Links
• Booklist
• Horn Book
• VOYA
• AudioFile Magazine
• Library Journal
• Publisher’s Weekly
• School Library Journal

Audiobook awards and honors

• ALA’s Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production
• YALSA’s Amazing Audiobook yearly list of suggest tiles
• ALSC’s Notable Children’s Recordings yearly list of suggested titles
• The Audio Publishers Association’s Audies Awards
• The spoken word Grammy Awards
• Publishers Weekly’s Listen Up Award
• AudioFile magazine’s Golden Earphones

Starting & enhancing the audiobook collection

• Investigate formats: CD, MP3, Playaway, downloads
• Decide on interfiled or separate shelving
• Piggyback with Title 1, Stimulus, or other funding sources
• Seek grants from PTO, Friends, or education foundations
• Survey language arts & resource teachers for titles & topics
• Choose “One book,” top circulating titles & local required reading Language Arts titles first

Marketing your audiobooks

• Hook commuters, teachers & parents first – survey to see where a need is perceived
• Include audiobooks in displays, booktalks, summer reading lists
• Investigate circulating players & rechargeable batteries
• Hold CD ripping, MP3 loading & public library downloading workshop, both on-site & off-site
• Create a listening club or provide listening stations in youth & teen areas
• Include listening minutes in summer reading club requirements
• Display in collaboration with craft programs: knitting, beadwork, etc.
• Promote summer time “family listening” at the local pool, with parent + child titles
• Promote at the local Senior Citizen Center with Playaways + large print
• Include diverse audiobook styles in promotions: single-voice, full cast, non-fiction, etc.

Parents as audiobook partners

• Create pre-holiday break or open house displays of family-friendly audiobooks for travel time listening
• Highlight your audiobook collection in toddler time & in parent newsletters along with research data on audiobooks
• Provide audiobook + large print material lists
• Purchase audiobook titles to supplement parent/child book clubs

Making audiobooks part of the curriculum

• Hook teachers with a long commute on audiobooks
• Lobby for audiobooks fulfilling teacher’s reading assignment quotas
• Have audiobook research reports at-hand
• Include audiobooks in pathfinders, summer reading lists, & classroom collections.

Achieving Content Standards with Audiobooks

Music

• Students identify significant contributions of composers and performers to our music heritage.

Music Connection

• Jazz / Live Oak Media ~ Odyssey Award-winning history of the American musical art form, with original compositions and jazz vocals transforming Walter Dean Myers’ poetry and Christopher Myers’ illustrations into an entirely new work.

Dramatic Arts

• Students analyze the creative techniques used in creating and performing dramatic/theatrical works and evaluate dramatic/theatrical works using appropriate criteria

Dramatic Arts Connection

• Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village / Recorded Books ~ This Newbery title was written to be performed as Reader’s Theater, as modeled by the full cast of narrators.

Visual Arts

• Students understand the impact of visual art on the history, culture, and society from which it emanates.

Visual Arts Connection

• The Pot That Juan Built / Weston Woods ~ Mexican potter Juan Quezada’s artistic process is revealed in a multilayered readalong for all ages.

Social Studies

• Students use knowledge of the purposes, structures and processes of political systems at the local, state, national & international levels to understand that people create systems of government as structures of power & authority to provide order, maintain stability and promote the general welfare.

Social Studies Connection

• Chasing Lincoln’s Killer / Scholastic Audio ~Mesmerizing factual narrative with the excitement of a murder mystery.

Science

• Students demonstrate an understanding of different historical perspectives, scientific approaches and emerging scientific issues associated with the life sciences.

Science Connection

• The Adoration of Jenna Fox / Macmillan Audio ~ Listeners will explore the issues of medical ethics, organ transplants, and the very concept of human existence.

Foreign Language

• Students demonstrate an understanding of insights gained into another culture through the examination of its practices (behaviors), products (tangibles such as monuments, food and literature, and intangibles such as laws and music) and perspectives (attitudes, values, ideas, world views).

Foreign Language Connection

• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale / Peachtree Publishers ~ Author/narrator Carmen Agra Deedy’s bilingual reading and authentic background music provide the perfect Latino cultural flavor to this Odyssey Award Honor title.

Mathematics

• Students demonstrate number sense, including an understanding of number systems and operations and how they relate to one another.

Mathematics Connection

• How Much is a Million? / Weston Woods ~ Audio and illustrations combine to illuminate the concept of large numbers.

Technology

• Students use computer and multimedia resources to support their learning
• Identify what information is, and recognize that it can be represented in a variety of ways

Technology Connection

• Frankenstein / Tantor Media ~ Tantor’s Unabridged Classics series includes both the audiobook read by a top narration plus the entire book as a PDF file that may be read on computer or hand-held reader, allowing full-text search & print capabilities.

Language Arts

• Students define and investigate self-selected or assigned issues, topics and problems. They locate, select & make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference and technological sources.

Language Arts Connection

• Duck for President / Weston Woods ~ A title that can be enjoyed by all ages and at many levels, made even more enjoyable by Randy Travis’ witty narration & musical accompaniment.

Language Arts

• Students acquire vocabulary through exposure to language-rich situations, such as reading books and other texts and conversing with adults and peers.

Language Arts Connection

• Blues Journey / Like Oak Media ~ A stunning readalong that recreates the title, adding original blues music to the poems that trace the history of the Blues.

Evaluating Audiobooks

Use the titles below to model the bulleted evaluative benchmarks

The Narrator as Author’s Voice

• The reading should be authentic and appropriate to content, with voices that match the time and place of the text as well as characters’ gender, ages, and moods.
• The reader should use well-placed inflections and tones and convey the meaning of the text through engaging expression, emotion, and energy.
• The reader should maintain and differentiate character voices, accents, or dialects consistently. Narrative descriptions (”He murmured,” for example) should be read appropriately.
• A single performer may read in a straightforward manner using his or her natural voice with suitable inflection and tone. Or the reader may vary his or her voice to change tone, inflection, accent, and emphasis to represent multiple characters. The reading might also be a combination of the two styles, with major or pivotal characters receiving particular emphasis. Some audios feature multiple narrators taking on specific roles and characters or full cast dramatizations.
• Recommended titles: (* notes Odyssey Award title)

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows / JK Rowling / Listening Library

Al Capone Does My Shirts / Gennifer Choldenko / Recorded Books

Born to Rock / Gordon Korman / Brilliance Audio

Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan / Full Cast Audio

Clementine / Sara Pennypacker / Recorded Books

Deliver Us from Normal / Kate Klise / Recorded Books

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie / Jordan Sonnenblick / Scholastic Audio

The Girls / Amy Koss/ Full Cast Audio

The Graveyard Book / Neil Gaiman / Harper Children’s Audio

Ish / Peter Reynolds / Weston Woods

Marcello in the Real World / Francisco X. Stork / Listening Library

Rotten Ralph Helps Out / Jack Gantos / Live Oak Media

So Much to Tell You / James Marsden / Bolinda Audio

Wolf Brother / Michelle Paver / HarperChildren’s Audio

Window to Culture / Reflection of Region

• Cultures & ethnicities are presented authentically and without stereotype.
• Geographic terms, foreign terminology, and other challenging phrases and words should be pronounced correctly and with ease.
• Musical features match the culture and region portrayed.
• Recommended titles: (* notes Odyssey Award title)

* The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian / Sherman Alexie / Recorded Books

* Bloody Jack series / L.A. Meyer / Listen & Live Audio

Bindi Babes / Narinder Dhami / Listening Library

Bucking the Sarge / Christopher Paul Curtis / Listening Library

The Cay / Theodore Taylor / Listening Library

Dairy Queen / Catherine Gilbert Murdock / Listening Library

Does My Head Look Big in This? / Randa Abdel-Fattah / Bolinda Audio

Homeless Bird / Gloria Whelan / Listening Library

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency / Alexander McCall Smith / Recorded Books

A Pack of Lies / Geraldine McCaughrean / BBC Audiobooks America

Parrot in the Oven / Victor Martinez / Harper Audio

The Power of One / Bryce Courtenay / Bolinda Audio

Revenge of the Whale / Audio Bookshelf

Secret Life of Bees / Sue Monk Kidd / HighBridge Company

Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood / Benjamin Alire Saenz / Recorded Books

To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee / Caedmon

When My Name Was Keoko / Linda Sue Park / Recorded Books

Whale Rider / Witi Ihimaera / Bolinda Audio

Behind the Booth: Production Quality

• Quality productions maintain a clean, crisp sound that allows for periods of silence and a range of dynamics, without affecting volume levels.
• The recording should be free of sibilant or plosive microphone pick-ups. Distractions result if reader moves off microphone, has an overly dry or juicy mouth, or can be heard swallowing.
• Sloppy production may result in titles that are too loud or intense, have missing or repeated text segments, show obvious dubbing or noticeable time differences in recording sessions, or contain abrupt or lengthy chapter or line breaks.
• The packaging should correctly note title, author, and readers’ names as well as accurate running times or notice of abridgement.
• Readalongs (picture book and audio sets) require additional evaluative criteria. Because the intent is for youngsters to follow along with the picture book while listening, there should be no mismatches between the words, pictures, and sound effects. Page turn signals are usually an option and these cues should allow time for young listeners to follow the text and explore the illustrations.
• Recommended titles: (* notes Odyssey Award title)

*Jazz / Walter Dean Myers / Live Oak Media

*I’m Dirty! / Kate & Jim McMullan / Weston Woods

Journey of the One & Only Declaration of Independence / Judith St. George / Weston Woods

The Golden Compass / Philip Pullman / Listening Library

The Goose Girl / Shannon Hale / Full Cast Audio

The One and Only Shrek / William Steig / Macmillan Young Listeners

Mack Made Movies / Don Brown / Live Oak Media

Peter and the Starcatchers / Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson / Brilliance Audio

Seven Blind Mice / Ed Young / Weston Woods

Gifts & Goodies: Audio Extras

• Music may be used as an introduction or to delineate mood, setting, or time changes. The background music must be unobtrusive and not interrupt the narrative flow.
• If sound effects are used, they serve to subtly enhance the production, rather than distract.
• Bonus features include author interviews, critical essays, or other supplemental audio materials.
• Added content may be informational booklets, links to web-based material, games or computer files on disk, or graphic materials such as illustrations or photographs.
• Recommended titles: (* notes Odyssey Award title)

*Dooby Dooby Moo / Doreen Cronin / Weston Woods

*Treasure Island / Robert Louis Stevenson / Listening Library

We are the Ship / Kadir Nelson / Brilliance Audio

Eagle of the Ninth / Rosemary Sutcliff / Naxos Audio

Fairest / Gail Carson Levine / Full Cast Audio

Hitler Youth / Susan Campbell Bartoletti / Listening Library

I Am Not Joey Pigza / Jack Gantos / Listening Library

The Invention of Hugo Cabret / Brian Selznick / Scholastic Audiobooks

King for Kids / Clayborne Carson, ed. / Hachette Audio

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel / Virginia Lee Burton / Magic Maestro Music

Poets’ Corner: The One-and-only Poetry Book for the Whole Family / John Lithgow, ed. / Grand Central Publishing

Series of Unfortunate Events series / Lemony Snicket / HarperChildren’s Audio

The Wall and the Wing / Laura Ruby/ Brilliance Audio

When Marian Sang / Pam Munoz Ryan / Live Oak Media

Breaking the Wall: The Art of the Audiobook

• The audiobook must stand alone as a fully-realized expression of the author’s intent and meaning.
• The mark of an excellent audiobook is one in which the wall of performance is removed so that listeners fall completely into the audiobook experience.
• Recommended titles: (* notes Odyssey Award title)

*Elijah of Buxton / Christopher Paul Curtis / Listening Library

*Nation / Terry Pratchett / Harper Children’s Audio

*Skulduggery Pleasant / Derek Landy / Harper Children’s Audio

Before I Die / Jenny Downham /Listening Library

Day of Tears / Julius Lester / Recorded Books

The Book Thief / Markus Zusak / Listening Library

Buddha Boy / Kathe Koja / Full Cast Audio

Dead Fathers Club / Matt Haig / HighBridge Audio

I, Coriander / Sally Gardner / Listening Library

Keturah and Lord Death / Martine Leavitt / Recorded Books

Lon Po Po / Ed Young / Weston Woods

By Mary Burkey, 2009

Audiobook fans, mark your calendars now: Monday 7/13, 3:30-5:30pm, McCormick Place West in W-470b. This is a free event, no ticket needed. Grab your seats early, as last year this was a standing-room only event -I even spotted a few Newbery-award winners sitting on the floor! The Odyssey Award recognizes excellence in the production of audiobooks for children & young adults, and is sponsored by ALSC, YALSA, and Booklist. The 2009 Odyssey Awards Presentation and Reception will include appearances by  Sherman Alexie, Mirron Willis, and Katherine Kellgren. Refreshments at the Odyssey celebration are courtesy of the Audio Publishers Association. Come recognize the work of the best and brightest in audiobook publishing – and the hard-working members of the 2009 Odyssey Award committee. Hope to see you there!

Click here for a printable list of 50 books, five magazines, and five audiobooks that make up the Ultimate Teen Bookshelf, named by the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association. Subscribers to the YALSA-BK electronic discussion list suggested titles for the Ultimate Teen Bookshelf, which were vetted by Pam Spencer Holley and Judy Sasges. Here are the five audiobooks that should be in every YA audiobook collection:

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Recorded Books)
2. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer (Listen and Live)
3. The Killer’s Cousin by Nancy Werlin (Brilliance)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Caedmon)
5. Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett (HarperAudio)

Twenty top new titles for children & adults were named by the UK’s Audio Publishing Association, as well as 20 notable backlist titles.  US favorites, such as Tea Time for the Traditionally Built and The Graveyard Book appear on the list, as well as distinctly UK titles such as The Last Fighting Tommy by Harry Patch, who at age 110 wrote his life story including his time in the trenches in WWI, and who reads a portion of the audiobook. Always great to have another “best” list to have on hand! Click “Read the rest…” to see the complete list:

British Publisher / Title / Author / Narrator

2009 Top 20 Titles

CSA Word     A Room With a View E. M Forster     Juliet Stevenson
Naxos     The Road Cormac McCarthy     Rupert Degas
Macmillan     Revelation C. J. Sansom     Anton Lesser
Hachette Digital     Tea Time for the Traditionally Built Alexander McCall Smith     Adjoa Andoh
Orion     The White Tiger Aravind Adiga     Kerry Shale
Orion     Past Imperfect Julian Fellowes     Julian Fellowes
Orion     The Brass Verdict Michael Connelly     Michael Brandon
Penguin     Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming)     Jeremy Northam
BBC     Paul Temple and the Front Page Men Durbridge, Francis     Head, Anthony
Harper Collins     Slumdog Millionaire Vikas Swarup     Kerry Shale
BBC     Doctor Who: Pest Control (audio exclusive story)     Anghelides, Peter     Tennant, David
Random House     Dear Fatty Dawn French     Liza Tarbuck
Hachette Digital     The Last Fighting Tommy Harry Patch with Richard Van Emden     Alan Howard
Orion     Wake Up and Change Your Life Duncan Bannatyne     David Rintoul
Bloomsbury     The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Kate Summerscale     Harriet Walter
Canongate     Dreams From My Father Barack Obama     Barack Obama
BBC     I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue Live: Vol 2 Radio Soundtrack     Clue team
Bloomsbury     The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman     Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins     The Boy In The Dress David Walliams     David Walliams and Matt Lucas
Harper Collins     Paddington Here and Now Michael Bond     Stephen Fry

Back catalogue top 20
Harper Collins     Murder of Roger Ackroyd/on Orient Express Agatha Christie     Hugh Fraser
Orion     Exit Music Ian Rankin
Naxos     Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen     Juliet Stevenson
Naxos     Great Expectations Charles Dickens     Anton Lesser
BBC     The Fellowship of the Ring J.R Tolkein
Random House     Birdsong Sebastian Faulks     Samuel West
Random House     Curious Incident Of The Dog In the Night-Time Mark Haddon     Ben Tibber
BBC     The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Primary Phase Douglas Adams
CSA Word     Uncle Fred in The Springtime P. G. Wodehouse     Martin Jarvis
Harper Collins     The Life of Pi Yann Martel     Kerry Shale
Naxos     The Essential Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas     Philip Madoc et al
Naxos     A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion Simon Barnes     Simon Barnes
Macmillan     History of Modern Britain Andrew Marr     Andrew Marr
BBC     America, Empire of Liberty: Vol 1, Liberty and Slavery Reynolds, David     Reynolds, David
BBC     Talking Heads No.1 Alan Bennett
Naxos     Othello William Shakespeare     Full Cast
CSA Word     Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh     Jeremy Northam
Orion     Horrid Henry’s Stinkbomb Francesca Simon
Macmillan     The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson     Imelda Staunton
Naxos     The Sword in the Stone T. H. White     Neville Jason

Grab this science-fiction title quick – available for free from Audible.com until June 12th! Sun of Suns: Book One of Virga by Karl Schroeder, narrated by Joyce Irvine, published by Macmillan Audio is the first in a space trilogy . Read the review of the print edition here – and if you’d like recommendations of other great audiobook titles, check out Jessica Moyer’s list of the Top 10 SF/Fantasy Audiobook Titles of 2003-2008 or Candace Smith’s list of Top 10 SF/Fantasy Audiobooks of 2002 (a very good year!)