This is something a little different for me. Fans of my Book Lists know that usually I’m all about the printed word, on paper or electronic. My personal preference is to read, since most audio fiction makes me feel like I’m drowning in molasses. I just read too quickly to listen to fiction in audio. But my daughter asked me for a little help as we are packing to head to LibertyCon this coming week. She wanted to keep up with her Comparative Mythology class while we’re on the road, and she can’t read in the car, she gets car sick. I’ll help you find a podcast or a librivox book, I told her.
And then I asked on social media for recommendations. Which, contrary to my past experiences with book recommendation requests, flopped. Folks suggested youtube, which might work if we can download (some can, and some cannot, be downloaded). I was asked why not Audible for audiobooks. Well, just like the lack of unlimited cell data that would make youtube feasible, we don’t have the budget for something no one in the family is using. But if I can get the kids listening to audiobooks, we might pick that up. Hence my ask for recommended librivox books.
Wait. I don’t think most of the people on my friends list and beyond know about Librivox.
So here’s the quick intro, and then a long list of fairy tale and mythology books I’m going to be loading up on an SD card for my daughter. Librivox books are recorded by volunteers reading from public domain titles. Sure, you won’t be able to download the latest best sellers, but for a homeschooling class? The price is right on and the depth of source material goes far beyond what I’d ever imagined. Learning a new language? There are a lot of fairy tale books in German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and more.
The Blue Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
A Book of Fairy Tales (Sabine Baring-Gould)
The Brown Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Canadian Fairy Tales (Cyrus Macmillan)
The Children of Odin (Padraic Colum)
Cossack Fairy Tales (Robert Nisbet Bain)
The Crimson Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks (William Elliot Griffis)
Edmund Dulac’s Fairy Tale Book
Fairy Tales from Brazil (Else Spicer Eells)
Fairy Tales from South Africa (Mrs. EJ Bourhill)
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
Folk-Lore and Legends: Russian and Polish (Charles John Tibbits)
Folk-Lore and Legends: Scandanavian (Charles John Tibbits)
The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India (WHD Rouse)
The Iliad for Boys and Girls (Alfred John Church)
The Indian Fairy Book (Henry R Schoolcraft) Cedar’s note: these are Native American tales.
Jataka Tales (Ellen C Babbitt)
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends (Gertrude Landa)
The Lilac Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Manx Fairy Tales (Sophia Morrison)
The Meadow Sprite, and Other Tales of Modern Germany (Richard von Volkmann)
Melor of the Silver Hand; and Other Stories of the Bright Ages (David Bearne)
The Odyssey for Boys and Girls (Alfred John Church)
The Old Old Fairy Tales (Laura Valentine)
The Olive Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
The Pearl Fountain, and other Fairy Tales (Julia and Bridget Kavanaugh)
The Pink Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Polish Fairy Tales (AJ Glinksi)
Puck of Pook’s Hill (Rudyard Kipling)
The Red Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Russian Fairy Tales (William Shedden-Ralston)
The Scottish Fairy Book (Elizabeth W Grierson)
The Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales From the Old French (Charles Perrault)
The Stone Axe of Burkamukk (Mary Grant Bruce) Cedar’s note: tales from Aboriginal Australia.
The Strange Story Book (Leonora Blance Lang)
Swanhilde, and other Fairy Tales (Wilhelm Hauff)
The Talking Thrush and Other Tales from India (WHD Rouse)
The Violet Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
Welsh Fairy Tales (William Elliot Griffis)
West African Folk Tales (William H Barker)
The Yellow Fairy Book (Andrew Lang)
And a couple others that caught my eye but aren’t actually for her class!
The Princess and Curdie (George MacDonald)
Honey-Bee (Anatole France)
The Book of Dragons (E Nesbit)
Almost four dozen books! This ought to keep her busy!
Comments
5 responses to “Fairy Tales Around the World: An Audiobook List”
That ought to keep her busy! Might be entertaining listening for the whole family! How long is the drive?
If we drove straight down, it would be about 7 hours. We’re taking the first day in stages so we can stop and see Dorothy and Don briefly.
I’d say yes, all listen, but the First Reader can’t hear between deaf and road noise, so it winds up being irritating garbled noise to him. She always has her headphones 😀
You might also consider Overdrive (specifically, www (dot) overdrive (dot) com). Lots of libraries use the service, so if your local library is on the list, then it’s free. I’ve enjoyed using it to download audiobooks onto my phone for trips when I expect to be out of wifi range.
Best of luck with the trip!
I hadn’t heard of LibraVox – it’s like our State’s library for the blind. Worth looking into, thanks.
I will second the library’s Overdrive for some audiobooks. I mostly use books on CD from the library myself.
We’re on the trip, but before we left we discovered that a lot of the podcatcher apps can access the librivox books as well! She downloaded about half the books on the list 🤣