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Health & Fitness

Captivate Your Captives on Holiday Drives

Audio books are perfect for your family's long holiday drive. Read my recommendations here.

By Diane Gornell, Teacher Librarian

 

I listen to audio books all the time on my commute to work, and I highly recommend playing some on long holiday drives to keep the “wiggles” from setting in. The challenge is finding the ones that will interest both adults and children.

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One of my favorite and wickedly funny authors is Carl Hiaasen, a long-time reporter and columnist for the Miami Herald newspaper. His South Florida setting is used as another character in each of these books.

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I’ve read most of his adult books and all of his children’s books. Hoot, his first for children, was published in 2002 and he’s subsequently written Flush (2005), Scat (2009), and Chomp (2012). While his books are listed as appealing to students in 5th through 8th grades, I think that the audio format allows any of these four stories to appeal to younger children who aren’t able to read the book independently, but can grasp the story when it’s read to them. They also have enough humor and action to appeal even to children older than 8th grade.

 

Hoot, Flush, and Scat all have environmental themes:  Hoot an endangered owl, Flush water pollution, Scat a rare, endangered Florida panther. While having all the elements of those three stories, Chomp gives us even more. It includes a son with too much adult responsibility, family financial problems, a father with a dangerous job of wildlife handler, and a phony “reality” TV star.

 

Any of these stories can spark good family discussions about loyalty, responsibility, what’s real and what’s illusion, life’s problems and challenges, ethics, and courage.

 

Hiaasen’s characters include greedy bad guys and eccentric outcasts and the stories have plenty of action, adventure, and suspense. The children are the problem solvers and heroes, and this is done in a believable way. The endings are happy. In other words, they have all the makings of a good holiday read. Look for more holiday tips on Eve.

 

Photo Courtesy of digitalart / Free Digital Photos

 

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