Story time! Great stories available as audiobooks for your children

Reading books with your child is an incredibly powerful way of supporting your child’s learning. We’ve put together a list of stories that are available as audiobooks (one for each day of the week) that we think make for great listening. The lists are divided into stories appropriate for 3-5 year olds and stories more appropriate for children aged 6+.

We’ve also created some guidance for parents about reading together at home with young children.

For preschoolers (3-5 years)

Monday: Listen to Dick Weir read Doctor Grundy’s Undies by Dawn McMillan (5 mins) 

Tuesday: Listen to Oliver Jeffers read The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (19 mins)

Wednesday: Listen to Heather Forest read Stone Soup (7 mins) 

Thursday: Listen to Fraser read The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson (7 mins) 

Friday: Listen to Maria Rose MacDonald read Whako Kakapo by Yvonne Morrison  (9 mins) 

For older children (6 years +)

Monday: Listen to Grace Lin read a chapter of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (12 mins)

Tuesday: Listen to David Walliams read a chapter from one of his The World’s Worst Children volumes (around 20 mins – story changes each day) 

Wednesday: Listen to Fiona Samuel read Northwood by Brian Falkner (each chapter 12-14 min, 10 chapters)

Thursday: Listen to Peter Bland read Starkey the Gentle Pirate (a poem, 7 mins)

Friday: Listen to Curtis Sisco read Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling (35 mins) 

PREPARED FOR THE EDUCATION HUB BY

Dr Vicki Hargraves

Dr Vicki Hargraves runs our early childhood education webinar series and also is responsible for the creation of many of our early childhood research reviews. Vicki is a teacher-educator and researcher living in Wellington. Her PhD drew on posthumanist philosophy to understand early childhood education as a deeply materialist practice, and her research and writing interests demonstrate her commitment to creative child- and community-centred approaches to education focused on social justice and participation, as well as attention to multiple ways of knowing and being in early childhood education.