We Are Stories
With a copy of the picture book Dreamers open on the desk, children in a Maine classroom listen to narrator Adriana Sananes read the line “we are stories.”
Adriana Sananes is not in the classroom. Her performance of Yuyi Morales’ award-winning Mexican American book is emanating from a slim audiobook player embedded in the book’s front cover. The classroom is using a Wonderbook, a new product from Playaway that is placing powerful audiobook narration into the read-aloud experience.
As the children turn the pages in time with Sananes’ voice, they are gaining the unique literacy and cultural experience of reading the text while it is read to them in a voice authentic to the story.
Audiobooks Headed to 100’s of Classrooms
With an astonishing $15,000 gift from AudioFile Magazine, I’m Your Neighbor Books and AudioFile are placing Wonderbooks in all of the currently touring Welcoming Libraries.
Listen to an excerpt from I’m New Here: ”Our voices flowed like water and flew between us like birds”.
Regular editions of I’m New Here, Someone New, Dreamers, Alma and How She Got Her Name, and Freedom Soup will be replaced by audio-enhanced editions. With these editions, stories will “fly between us like birds.”
From Maine to California, these Wonderbooks could reach as many as 500 classrooms and libraries a year.
“At AudioFile we know that authentically-voiced audiobooks deepen the impact of a story, and we are pleased to support featured IYNB Welcoming Library books with audiobook voices. We celebrate the addition of Wonderbook editions in the touring Welcoming Libraries…The original audiobook recordings from Dreamscape Audio and Live Oak Media bring authentic, professional voices to the experience for readers.” —AudioFile founder Robin Whitten
Can you help us bring even more authentic voices to classrooms and communities?
