I’ve been a book lover from all the way back when I was too tiny to do the reading myself, and had the good fortune to be born into a family who believed in reading to babies. With that lucky start, it is perhaps inevitable that I ended up working with words.
I remember long car trips with listen/read-along books. Pop the cassette (yes I’m that old) in to the car stereo up front, and in the backseat the kids follow along with the story, turning the pages at the helpful ‘DING!’ (Happily for both front and back seat dwellers, we weren’t pukey, carsick types) Some of these books even had songs. And in the unlikely event you would want me or my sisters to sing to you, I guarantee we could all still sing every word to these songs.
These books had a big impact and bring back lots of happy memories. So I was delighted to be asked to be the Australian narrator for Reading’s a Breeze’s interactive read-along e-books.
Voicing these books required a very specific read. It had to be the right pace to suit the age and reading level of each title. Yes it had to be slow enough for inexperienced readers to pick out individual words and follow along, but slow most definitely could not mean sleepy. The tone had to be bright and engaging to maintain interest and match the vivid animations and illustrations.
The books’ themes include inclusivity and sustainability, but certainly not in a tedious, preachy way. And they offer interactive learning activities with either a STEM or language focus, including suggestions for open-ended questions… perfect for parents or teachers to keep the conversation going beyond the end of the book.
Such a fun and worthy project to be involved with.
DING! Let’s turn the page to the next exciting voiceover adventure….