Who Says Listening To An Audio Book is Cheating?

Scenario 1: It's the morning of an important day, the schedule is going to be tight and everyone in the family is going to need to do their part. You carefully explained to your tween daughter that today, she would need to remember to do her homework right when she got home. Then it would be her job to clean out the dishwasher and pick up her room. Simple enough, right? Later that night you arrive home and none of the things have been completed.

Scenario 2: You remind your tween son that he needs to remember to pack his books and his lunch in his backpack. After everyone has gone out the door, you see that his lunch and books on the table weren't packed and left behind. 

What's the problem? While there could be numerous reasons, one of the main ones is a lack of listening skills. Remember Charlie Brown? Whenever he heard an adult talk all he would hear is Waaa,Wa,Wa,Wa Waaa. Ever feel like that? I have and it can be very frustrating. 

We have become a visual society and our listening skills are taking a back seat, especially in our children. Add to that the fog that descends around the time tween hormones begin to bounce out of control. How important are listening skills? Let's just say that relationships, jobs and pretty much anything that an adult is going to participate in will require good listening skills. I don't know about you, but I know plenty of adults who lack listening skills.

What can we do? Like any other skill it takes practice and listening to audiobooks is a great way to improve listening skills! 

Gram's Audiobook Pick of the Week: Flora and Ulysses by Kate Dicamillo

"Listeners will need to hold on to their headphones as author DiCamillo and narrator Tara Sands treat them to a madcap adventure that bounces between quirky human characters and a squirrel with superhero dreams who also writes poetry. Sands's narration is lively and fast paced. She takes on variety of personalities with gusto: among them, the determined Flora and her flappable mother, dramatic Tootie and her unexpected friend William Spiver, and the dreamy-voiced squirrel, Ulysses. AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner, Winner of ALSC's 2014 Notable Children's Recordings" — Website

Click HERE for a sample.

About The Book: Holy unanticipated occurrences! A cynic meets an unlikely superhero in a genre-breaking new novel by master storyteller Kate DiCamillo. It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K.G. Campbell.

About The Narrator: Tara Sands

Website

IMDb

Simply Audio Books- other books narrated by Tara.


Who: Tara Sands (also known as Tara Jayne or Tara Jane) is an American voice actor and actress. She is probably best known as the voice of Anna Kyoyama in Shaman King, Mokuba Kaiba in the English adaptation of the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan, up until episode 183, or the start of Season 5) as well as Chase on Fighting Foodons. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in New Jersey, Sands studied theatre at Hofstra University, and has had a steady stream of voice acting work since high school. Much of her work is in anime dubbing, with multiple roles in such franchises as Slayers and Pokémon. —Celebs Bio