Children’s audiobooks – Katie L. Carroll

You may have noticed that I like trying new things when it comes to my author career. My published books alone, with their varied age ranges and genres, would clue you in to this. Which brings you my latest endeavor of the audiobook for Grammy’s Halloween Scare!

Listen to the audiobook on Chirp, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Libro.fm, and Google Play, Spotify and more to come. Also, you can check Libby and Hoopla from your local library and request it if they don’t already have it.

Because it’s me, I decided to not only narrate the audiobook myself, but also record a musical version of the book where I sang, played guitar, and mixed in sound effects. Am I good singer? No. Am I a good guitar player? Also, no. Do I know how to produce songs? Again, no.

Did I do all those things anyway? Yes!

Do I think it turned out okay? I think it turned out more than okay. I think it’s a lot of fun! I wasn’t going for perfection, more an experience that was real that kids would like. What’s more fun than having an author sing their book to you while playing guitar? Honestly, it was a lot of fun to make it as well.

That also means that the long-awaited audiobook of Mommy’s Night Before Christmas is also on the way. I know, I promised you that last year, but I didn’t get all my ducks in a row in time for a holiday release. But you’re really getting it this year!

While we’re still in spooky season, my upper middle grade book Witch Test is on sale for the whole month of October! Eighth grade is a bubbling cauldron of rumors in this Mean Girls meets The Craft book for tweens and teens. Get it for just $2.99 at my Purchase Books page (my favorite place for you to buy my books), Bookshop, Amazon, Itch, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and more.

If you’ve been around here for awhile, you may remember my post “Training My Brain to Read Audiobooks,” written way back in 2019. It’s been a long time, but I’ve finally cracked the code on successfully reading audiobooks! For my brain, at least. No guarantees my strategies will help you if you struggle with audiobooks, but maybe it’ll give you some ideas to try.

Why did it take so long for me to figure out how to read an audiobook? I had to figure out what worked for my brain, and that was hard to do. I tried all kinds of things–like changing playback speeds and listening to shorter form works and podcasts–to try to and get used to listening to stories. But when it came to novels, I just couldn’t pay attention. I would get about 5 minutes into a listening session and then my mind would start to wander.

Enter last Memorial Day weekend! My oldest son and I had a long car ride to a soccer tournament. In an effort to keep him from playing on his phone to entire time, we decided to pass the time with an audiobook. He had recently read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which is one of my favorite books, so we decided to try it out as an audiobook. We didn’t have enough time to listen to the whole thing, but I decided to try and finish it when we got home. And I was finally able to read an entire novel-length audiobook!

@katielcarrollauthor
Really enjoying walking and reading audiobooks during my kids’ soccer practices. Today, I was listening to Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. #audiobooks #walking #momswhoread #soccermom
♬ Dreaming of Mountains – Placidity

Turns out, driving engaged my brain just the right amount to also allow it to pay attention to an audiobook. This keyed me into the fact that I can’t try and be totally engaged in the audiobook; I have to engage my brain/body just enough to keep my mind from wandering. Now I read audiobooks while walking, cooking, doing dishes, gardening, and folding laundry.

It also helped that it was a book I knew well. That way if my mind did wander for a minute, I didn’t have to stop and relisten to what I missed. I could just keep moving forward because there was nothing new for me to miss.

I stuck with rereads for awhile, finishing up the Hunger Games series and moving on to other favorite books. Eventually, I felt comfortable moving into books that were 100% new to me. Now, a year later, I’m pretty much always in the middle of an audiobook. And it’s made cooking dinner each night a lot less tedious, sometimes even to the point where I’m looking forward to my cooking/reading time!

@katielcarrollauthor
My picture book The Bedtime Knight makes for a great bedtime story. It’s about facing fears and turning them into not-so-scary things. Available in paperback, ebook, and now as an audiobook! #picturebook #thebedtimeknight #bedtimestory #readaloud #audiobook #kidsaudiobooks
♬ original sound – Katie L. Carroll Author Shop

If you have children that love audiobooks, my picture book The Bedtime Knight, illustrated by Erika Baird, is part of an Audiobooks for Children promotion. Here’s the time if reached #1 and earned an orange banner on Amazon! It’s available on all different audiobooks platforms, including many libraries via Hoopla.