Audiobook: Dooby Dooby Moo

Dooby, Dooby Moo was written by Doreen Cronin. The audio book was read by Randy Travis.  It was published by Weston Woods in 2007.

I’ll admit it: I was an audio book virgin.  Until today, I had never heard a book on tape/cd/digital download.  When I wanted to read a book, I read it.  I have never been much of a fan of the idea of audio books, which is one of the reasons I chose a picture book to listen to.  When I read, there are many times I need to reread because my mind wanders and I don’t stay focused on what I am doing.  This is the main reason I’ve stayed away from audio books.  I knew my mind would wander, which it did.  I had to listen to the audio book three times. 

Dooby, Dooby, Moo is an award winning audio book.  It has won the AudioFile Earphones Award, ALA Notable Children’s Book, AlSC Notable Children’s Recording and the Odyssey Honor.  “The Odyssey  award is given to the producer of the best audio book produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.”

Dooby, Dooby Moo was a great first choice.  It was a lot of fun listening to this book.  The story is part of a series of books about Farmer Brown and his farm animals.  In this book, the animals have heard of a talent show at a fair and want to be part of it.  They spend their days practicing for their roles as the farmer spies on them.  I have always enjoyed reading the book to my children, changing my voice and trying the animal sounds the best I could, but it was much more of an experience listening to it on the audio recording. The audio started out with some country music playing, setting up the farm setting.  Randy Travis read the narration, but when it was time for one of the animals to read, there were addition voices giving the sounds of each animal.  The duck sounded like Donald Duck throughout the book.  The levels of voice when the animals performed was unique, as I could not do that myself when I read it aloud.

I think this is something students would enjoy since there is so much expression and fun incorporated into the reading, and I could see myself enjoying more short books, but still don’t think audio books are for me.  Like I said, my mind wanders and it was hard enough for me to listen to this fourteen minute audio.  I don’t think I would comprehend what was happening in a novel by listening to it.  If audio books are for you, there are many award winners out there.  Find a good one at The Association for Library Services for Children.