All Time Favorite Audiobooks {that Grown Ups Like Too}

We’ve logged hundreds and hundreds of hours listening to audiobooks! We always have one going in the car, and the most anticipated part of “packing” for a road trip is the selection of the book we’ll be listening to! I put a lot of weight on that decision as I know it’ll affect our traveling dispositions. 🙂

Many of our audiobooks are free through our library– either in their physical collection (we still have a vehicle with a CD player!), or through their digital offerings. We LOVE the Hoopla Digital app that our library offers– no holds/wait lists! We also subscribe to a “silver” plan through Audible which allots us one credit every other month. This has worked out perfectly for the times I can’t borrow something I have my eye on. (You can read my tips for Audible here and my roundup for getting the best Bang for Your Audible Credit here.)

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Below are the books we’ve listened to as a whole family that we’ve ALL enjoyed! Titles with an * were particular favorites.

• **The Wilderking series. As far as I know, the audiobooks of these are exclusive to audible. In my opinion, it’s worth signing up for a free trial or paying for access to these! They’re among our very very top favorites. They’re so rich and when read by the author they shine even brighter! His southern accent is just perfect! (PS. As of my writing this, if you’re a Prime member, you’ll get two free books to keep with your free trial, even if you cancel! All other free trials come with one free book for keeps. Details here.)
• The Wild Robot series
• The Vanderbeekers series
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• Charlotte’s Web
• Rascal
• The Silver Arrow
• All-of-a-Kind Family
• *The Trumpet of the Swan (read by the author! an absolute delight and so funny!)
• Winterfrost
• The Little House on the Prairie series (I especially loved listening to these while traveling as they made our frustrations seem pretty trivial. We also paused and talked through the trickier scenes. This TED Talk excerpt from author Grace Lin is helpful for thinking about Little House’s racism.)
• My Side of the Mountain series
• *By The Great Horn Spoon
• The Cricket in Times Square
• Leroy Ninker Saddles Up
• The House at Pooh Corner (and other original Pooh stories) I prefer the narrations by Peter Dennis, but the dramatized versions are lovely too- we’ve listened to both 🙂
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (loved the Anne Hathaway narration through audible!)
• The One Hundred and One Dalmatians
• Tumtum and Nutmeg
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the audible original is narrated by David Tennant!)
• Henry Huggins series, narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. These were some of my older son’s first favorite audios in kindergarten

Books My Kids LOVED That I Just Enjoyed

• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series (I should note that a great many adults adore these! I am in the minority in thinking the series is good but just not my cup of tea. The narrator is a genius, though! I’ll admit that fully.)
• The Moffats
• the remainder of the All of a Kind Family series (I loved the first but felt content with just one book- my kids, however, listened to the whole series multiple times during their quiet time.)
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• Homer Price
• Betsy-Tacy
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins

You may also enjoy this post about how we got started with audiobooks when my kids were itty bitty.

I’ll keep updating this list as we come across new favorites! I’d love to know your family’s favorites, too! Connect with me in the comments below, or on my Instagram or Facebook accounts.