Story Links

The importance of stories in all of our lives is undeniable. Those stories come from books, television, movies, radio and from our own telling. Most of us find particular delight in being read a story aloud and many of us enjoy reading stories aloud as much as listening to them.

There are many thousands of well know classics and wonderful obscure books and stories that are freely available on the web in text form, some as audio books, and many more that deserve to be made more accessible in a digital audio format.

Almost every computer has the capability of storing and playing digital audio, and similarly almost all can record and edit digital audio with free software. With the many highly portable MP3 players in the hands of so many students and adults, entire audio novels can be readily stored in a shirt pocket.

Thus, we have at our fingertips, almost all of the resources we need to begin creating a library of audio stories that can be freely shared throughout our community and the equipment to allow anyone with the interest to listen to and enjoy a read-aloud book.

With this project, we hope to engage adults and children in the creation of and listening to, audio books and stories. All we need are volunteers who love to read aloud, and listeners who love a good story.

"By listening to audio books, children are presented with an opportunity to hear language, thereby providing them with models for the correct use of grammar and also giving them the chance to hear the correct pronunciation of new or difficult words.

Another benefit of audio books is that they can play a vital role in bridging the gap in young children whose understanding and comprehension is greater than their reading skill. Often children who cannot yet read or who are just learning to read become frustrated by their lack of reading ability. In allowing them to "read" along with an audio book this frustration can be avoided as the child feels as though they're actually reading. This is an enormous benefit when encouraging a life-long love of books and reading in the very young.

A more obvious, but no less important benefit of listening to stories is that it improves a child's listening skills. More than half of our learning or accumulation of knowledge is achieved through just listening. Through just listening to audio books, children's concentration is improved and they become better listeners and thereby better learners. Listening to stories is still a great way to spend quality time together as a family and it has been shown to improve a child's conversation skills and to encourage them to express themselves.

The narrators of audio books also often bring the stories to life through different voices, music and sound effects. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations and "paint" their own pictures of characters and places. The overall effect of this is one of entertainment and enjoyment thereby strengthening the link between books and pleasure. This is particularly important for parents struggling with reluctant or problem readers.

According to a Commission on Reading report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers", "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children." However, changes in society mean that more and more demands are being made on our time. Finding time to squeeze everything in is often not only a challenge but impossible. Audio books can give often exhausted parents a break from reading to their child. What better way to relax and end the day than to cuddle up together and just listen."
(Buzzle.com)

There are several ways to listen to the stories posted on this site:

• Simply click on the title of the story and a new window will open and the story will begin to play on your computer
• Control-Click (Mac) or Right-Click (PC) the title of the story and choose the option to download the file (save link as ... or .... download linked file ... depending on the browser you are using.) This will download the MP3 which can then be played on your computer or MP3 player.
• Subscribe to the podcast for this site with iTunes or your favorite podcatcher. The address to use in subscribing is:
• http://www.u98.k12.me.us/readmeastory/xml/rss.xml
• More info on podcasting can be found here.

There are also many free audio books that you can download from Librivox and the LoudLit Project. There are links to these sites on this site.