Reading on the Road

If my family had a motto it would be "On the Road Again."

We're a military family that also happens to like to see new places. We've spent a lot of time on wheels, on water, and in the air.

My girls could name every rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike by the time they were ten. My older daughter had a passport before she could walk. If I ever get a tattoo in honor of my favorite technology, it would say "Easy Pass."

All this travel time has made us, well, good travelers, but sometimes you need a little help to make the miles pass faster. Games are great - we're pros at the license plate game and I Packed My Grandmother's Trunk. Music works wonders. But we've found that the one thing that can make us actually look forward to long stretches of blacktop is a good book to listen to.

In the days before instant downloads that meant books on CD or that I got to be Reader in Chief. I remember how Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events books took us across the Badlands and all the way to California - and gave me a bad case of laryngitis. Still, there was no way I could stop reading those wonderfully twisted books.

If you are planning a trip with kids, here are some suggestions for audiobooks that will save your family's sanity and your voice. Listening to one of these great books may turn out to be one of the best memories of your trip:

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell read by - yes, Doctor Who fans - David Tennant
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary read by Stockard Channing
The Graveyard Book, written and read by Neil Gaiman
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, read by Hope Davis
The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale

Do you listen to audiobooks? How do you pass the time when you are traveling?