The Gruffalo
Julia Donaldson
From about 2½
The rhyme carries it. A child who cannot yet follow a plot can still follow a rhythm, and this one repeats enough that they will be saying it with the narrator by the third listen.
Screen-free
Audiobooks for toddlers and preschoolers
The two-hour drive. The hour before dinner when nobody can face the park again. Audio is the one thing that fills those without handing over a screen, and a 3-year-old will happily hear the same story forty times.
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When audio actually helps
The car
The clearest win. A child strapped in for two hours has nothing to look at, and a story holds attention in a way music stops doing after the third round. It also means you are not passing a phone back between the seats.
The bedtime stretch
After the lights go out and before sleep, when you have already read three books and would quite like to eat dinner. A short story on low volume gives them something to settle to.
The hour you need both hands
Cooking, a younger sibling, a work call that ran over. Audio is the only thing on this list a 3-year-old will accept that is not a screen and does not need you in the room.
What it is good for
- Long journeys, where nothing else lasts
- Building the pictures themselves instead of being shown them
- Re-listening, which young children do far more than adults re-read
- Vocabulary they would not meet in everyday conversation
What it is not
- A replacement for reading together, which is about the interaction
- Much use below about 2 and a half, where music lands better
- A fix for a child who is tired, hungry or already past the point
- Worth a monthly fee if it turns out you use it twice
What to start with
Rhyme and repetition are what let a young child follow a story with no pictures to lean on, so the first few should sound almost like songs. Editions and availability change, so check before you count on a particular one.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
Michael Rosen
From about 2½
Call and response, so it is the rare audiobook a toddler joins in with out loud. Good in a car for exactly that reason, and bad at bedtime for the same one.
Room on the Broom
Julia Donaldson
From about 3
Same rhythm as The Gruffalo with a bit more story. The obvious next one if the first landed.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter
From about 3
Short, and the language is older and richer than most modern picture books. Worth it for the words they would not otherwise meet.
Winnie-the-Pooh
A. A. Milne
From about 4
Episodic, so you can stop anywhere without a cliffhanger. Gentle enough for the wind-down slot where an exciting story would backfire.
Paddington
Michael Bond
From about 4½
Closer to chapters, and the first thing on this list that needs a child who can hold a thread across twenty minutes. Save it until the shorter ones feel too easy.
Try it before you pay for it
Audible runs a free trial, which is the sensible way to find out whether your child takes to listening at all. Download a couple of stories, use them on the next long drive, and cancel before it renews if it turns out they would rather have the music back.
Trials are for new members only. Check the current terms and price on Amazon before signing up, since they change.
Common questions
What age can a child start listening to audiobooks?
Around 2 and a half to 3 for most children, and it is less about age than about attention. A child who will sit through a whole picture book being read aloud is usually ready for a short audio story. Before that, music and nursery rhymes hold up better than narrative.
Do audiobooks count as screen time?
No. Audio has none of the visual stimulation that screen-time guidance is concerned with, and listening to a story asks a child to build the pictures themselves. That is closer to being read to than to watching something.
Will audiobooks replace reading together?
They shouldn't, and the research on shared reading is about the interaction as much as the words. Treat audio as the thing for a car seat or a long afternoon, and keep reading together where you already do it.
Is a subscription worth it for a young child?
Only if you would use it regularly. Children re-listen to the same handful of stories far more than adults re-read books, so a small library goes a long way. Try a free trial first and see whether it actually gets used before paying monthly.
Keep going
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