PARENTS ARE feeling more harried than usual. With schools in more than 160 countries closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, UNESCO estimates that around 1.5bn pupils have been sent home. Caregivers are supposed to educate children on top of their other obligations; many are turning to games and television series, or seeking new pastimes to help keep their offspring entertained.
It is good news, then, that some writers have stepped in to fill the newly unstructured hours. David Walliams, a popular children’s author, has started a free series called “Elevenses”: he reads a new story each day from his “World’s Worst Children” collection, and posts it at 11 o’clock on SoundCloud. “Spoiled Brad”, posted on March 24th, has been played more than 400,000 times.
Audible—which, with a 30% market share, is the foremost platform for audiobooks—has created a collection of children’s titles which can be streamed free without a login or a subscription. It offers more than 200 books in English, 100 in Spanish and selections in Japanese, French, German and Italian. There is a mix of timeworn classics such as “Winnie the Pooh” and “Anne of Green Gables”, contemporary bestsellers such as Ingo Siegner’s “Der kleine Drache Kokosnuss” and intriguing outliers .
Is this truly 'audio is more engaging that video' or does a medium gain potency when concentrated on a single sense? Silent movies, for example.