Amazon-owned Audible has made hundreds of titles free to stream from anywhere in the world, suitable for children. The service allows free access from stories.audible.com without the need to register, login or prepayment required, aimed at giving parents a bit of a break during the global pandemic.

South Africans have access to audiobooks through spoken word performances by actors and sometimes the authors themselves. The service isn’t new and was launched a few months ago, but will remain active till early September, allowing parents and children to take a break from screens to listen to their favourite stories. 

According to Audible, it offers classics like A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh or for older children, they can fall down the rabbit hole with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Or soar over Agrabah on a magic carpet ride in Aladdin. Teens can visit the English countryside in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, breathe in the Alaskan wilderness in The Call of the Wild, or brave rough seas in Melville’s Moby Dick. These and a library of hundreds of other listens will be available at no cost, with no catch.

The global service offers readings in eight languages – English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

Just FYI, this is different to Audible itself, which is a premium audiobook subscription service.