In 2008 the new popularity of audiobook's stimulating ability to inspire children and young adult’s minds are about to be honoured with a new award which is a stamp of excellence on par with the famed Newbery and Printz awards.

The newly created 2008 American Library Association's Odyssey Award for excellence in children and young adult audiobooks rides the exciting worldwide trend in aural edutainment.

In Germany March 2007 there is a whole fair devoted to audiobooks. Nominations have just been announced in Cologne in March for the 2007 German Audiobook Prize, which can be seen as the equivalent of a German Oscar and are parallel to the celebrations of a highly respected literary festival.

The children's section of the German audiobook convention was this year particualrly successful and represent a large market for young European audiobook listeners.

So get ready to explore and discover exciting stories of adventures with famous authors of the new world! Exciting stories of adventure and spine tingling action..

Fire breathing fantasy dragons, fairies, family adventure and time machines...

In the 1950s kids hid behind the lounge when Professor Bernard Quatermass battled aliens on the BBC. ITV gave us Pathfinders in Space, the brainchild of Canadian Sydney Newman.

These days, we face the many choices of providing education vs entertainment to children. Many people attempt to read bedtime stories to their children but after a busy work day time can slip away or be considerably shortened.

Altogether literacy and comprehension have been challenged in the last few years, even though there's an overload of information!

With quality audiobooks, at the click of a button your child can be a pirate drifting off to a virtual treasure island or some far away galaxy within a blink of an eye and enjoy painless enriching learning too.

Recent research by teachers in Boston and San Diego schools assessed students who used audiobooks over a period of four to six weeks. They found students using audiobooks not only read more, their reading over this period improved substantially compared to control groups who used text alone.

Test scores showed greater improvement in both reading, comprehension and fluency. Students with ADD and ADHD also showed improvements in concentration. This is great news regarding many children who simply refuse to read.

Listening to audiobooks not only enhances verbal endurance when listening to information. It helps reading fluency, expands vocabulary and increases comprehension.