Subscription audiobook platform Audible has decided that children around the world should have free access to hundreds of audiobooks during this global period of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption to daily life, education and holidays.
An Audible spokesperson stated that:
Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids.
With 271 free audiobooks available in English this will help Australian parents who need to be prepared with entertainment for their children with the Easter school holidays fast approaching.
With a wide variety of titles from The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland narrated by famous actress Scarlett Johansson to Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry narrated by Star Trek’s LeVar Burton there should be plenty to keep kids and young adults of all ages entertained for many hours.
This free offering from Audible will be available for as long as schools are disrupted or closed due to the coronavirus.
You don’t need any special app, login or give your credit/bank card details. All you need is a desktop/laptop computer, phone or tablet.
Explore the free collection on your web browser, select a title and start listening. It’s that easy. If you want to pause and return later you need to use the same web browser on the same device to resume playback at the place you stopped.
This auto-bookmarking feature will only work for one book at a time/browser so if you start a book, listen a while, then start another book you’ll lose the bookmark on the first book.
Audible recommends that you use different device-browser combinations for each listener in your family, so each listener can stop and continue listening without losing the place they last paused the book they were reading.
Although it is obviously better if kids, assuming they are able to, read the book themselves but this is at least a way to keep their minds active.
