Back in France, one of our routines were the trips to the mediatheque every 3 weeks. The Girl loves books & always looks forward to going there. Needless to say, it wasn't long before we headed over to the National Library. In fact it was one of the first things I did after we arrived - to get The Girl her very own library card.
When we were in France, one of the items we regularly borrowed were audio books. Not those read-aloud-by-some-random-celebrity books nor those motivational CD types but musical books. Sort of a children's version of a musical - the CDs are usually not more than 20 mins & the accompanying books will have lyrics & graphics to further enhance the story. Our mediatheque in Aubenas has a whole section of these books. The last one we borrowed was a story about a little girl who went round the house looking for her missing doudou (french term for one's favorite stuffed toy or doll) - not terribly exciting but when it's backed up with original music & catchy lyrics - makes for a very fun read.
So I eagerly signed up for a premium membership, which allows one to borrow the audio-visual items. Imagine my surprise when I browsed said section & there was nothing like that. Not even close. I can't believe the French has a monopoly on these types of audio books. Does anybody out there know if such books are available in English ? Maybe I need to enquire at Kinokuniya or Amazon (which is what I'm going to do right after I publish this post).
Although I didn't manage to use the premium membership for it's intended purpose, we're benefitting from the additional books. As usual, even my quota goes to borrowing The Girl's books. I'm happy I've instilled this love of books in her & hope that we will continue our routine of reading 2 books every night before she goes to bed.
When we were in France, one of the items we regularly borrowed were audio books. Not those read-aloud-by-some-random-celebrity books nor those motivational CD types but musical books. Sort of a children's version of a musical - the CDs are usually not more than 20 mins & the accompanying books will have lyrics & graphics to further enhance the story. Our mediatheque in Aubenas has a whole section of these books. The last one we borrowed was a story about a little girl who went round the house looking for her missing doudou (french term for one's favorite stuffed toy or doll) - not terribly exciting but when it's backed up with original music & catchy lyrics - makes for a very fun read.
So I eagerly signed up for a premium membership, which allows one to borrow the audio-visual items. Imagine my surprise when I browsed said section & there was nothing like that. Not even close. I can't believe the French has a monopoly on these types of audio books. Does anybody out there know if such books are available in English ? Maybe I need to enquire at Kinokuniya or Amazon (which is what I'm going to do right after I publish this post).
Although I didn't manage to use the premium membership for it's intended purpose, we're benefitting from the additional books. As usual, even my quota goes to borrowing The Girl's books. I'm happy I've instilled this love of books in her & hope that we will continue our routine of reading 2 books every night before she goes to bed.
Only on our last trip there, did I realise that the Toa Payoh Library is probably closer to where we live so I think we might go check it out next.
3 comments:
Try the Esplande Library which is a specialized branch library for movies & audios & see whether they stock it there. But first call their reference line & describe to them what you want & see whether they can direct you to the appropriate branch library.
Generally, Regional Libraries are much better in that it is less crowded especially those up north, those down in the east are very crowded as most of the population seem to live there.
The Esplande Library only stock related topics on arts and music. There isn't any kids stuff there.
Toa Payoh is good, it is my weekly haunt. Regional library is big and huge varieties but don't go there during weekends coz you need to "walk over" plenty of legs and bags.
anon - Thanks for the tip. I called them & as Edith mentioned, they don't have what I'm looking for. The closest I could find online was some rock opera for kids. Strange that they don't something similar in English.
The French ones are really very good.
edith - I know but now that I'm working I don't have the luxury of going there during the weekdays.
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