Some time back, I was looking around for Thomas and Friends music CDs to play in the car to encourage car seat cooperation since Gavin loves listening music, especially songs from the Thomas and Friends series. I managed to find about 30 MP3 clips that I could download for free and burnt them onto a CD for him. Since the songs were unfamiliar, Gavin initially did not really take to the CD. After playing the disc for him a few times, he started to like a few of the tracks, especially because there were lots train sounds, Thomas theme music and the names of the characters were familiar – like Harold the Helicopter, Sir Topham Hatt, Toby and Emily.
Two of the soundtracks I downloaded were recordings of a narrator reading from the original Rev W Awdry’s Thomas the Tank Engine stories – Thomas and Gordon, and Henry and the Elephant. Once Gavin recognised the stories, they became two of his favourite tracks on the whole disc and would often want me to repeat them over and over until he got bored of them. Since he enjoyed listening to stories about Thomas so much, it got me thinking that if I could find more MP3 recordings of Thomas the Tank Engine being read, I’d have more tools to use in the car to help me manage Gavin in the car seat.
I had initially tried looking in the book stores for Thomas and Friends books with audio CDs because I remembered seeing some. I found some at MPH Bookstore in Midvalley but it was a rather thin book with only one story and it cost me about RM40 so I didn’t think it was worth it. At best, it would only be good for a couple of a car rides before Gavin would be sick of it and want a new story.
I decided to look online and managed to find two recordings created by BBC Audio books, each about an hour long from the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories by Rev W Awdry. They are narrated by Michael Angelis – whom I think does the best reading for Thomas the Tank Engine and because he is also the narrator for the TV series, his voice and style of reading is already familiar to Gavin.
The books can be downloaded to your computer for about 7 pounds each, where you can burn them onto a disc to be played in the car. Although you pay 7 pounds for it, the recording quality is good and they also throw in some music and sound effects in between, so I think it’s pretty worth it.
Here are the two links:
Thomas & Friends: The Railway Stories
Thomas & Friends: The Railway Stories Volume 2
I bought the first volume to see how easily it could be downloaded and burnt to CD and to test out the quality of the recording. I’ve tested the CD out in the car with Gavin and it was a hit. Even my MIL was surprised by how quietly Gavin could sit in the car just listening to the CD. I think I’ll get Volume 2 when Gavin gets sick of listening to Volume 1.
About the author
- More at
1003 SUBSCRIBERS
POSTS
2868 FANS