I knew the Harry Potter series was awesome. My teenager and I have been reading these books since he was little. But for some reason, I never considered reading them to my younger kids. Duh.

Last summer, when I desperately needed something to entertain the kids in the car and stop them from fighting, I grabbed the first Harry Potter book on CD from the library. I was doubtful that they would pay attention to a book on CD but I had nothing to lose. They were driving me crazy.

When I first popped the CD in car’s player, I think my younger kids thought they were getting away with something. I had just taken their older brother to the new Harry Potter movie, and they were not allowed to see it.  They patiently – and silently – let me pop the first CD into the player.  And they listened.  And listened.  And listened. All three of them silently listened on the way to summer camps, lessons, and errands. They listened all the way to Gram’s house (3 hours away) and all the way to Camp (4 hours away). And their reward for “reading” the entire book?  We all watched the movie together…a nice family night.

An added bonus? It gave my teenager something to talk about with the little ones, something that has bridged an age gap.  Also, it gave my daughter the courage to tackle the whole series this year.

The only problem now is that they don’t want to get out of the car. They want to keep listening. And that is not such a bad problem after all, is it?

-Shannon, StorySnoop

Which Harry Potter book is your favorite?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 5:35 PM and is filed under Books for Boys, Books for Girls, Books for Younger Readers, Shannon - StorySnoop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.