Top 10 Audiobooks for your family to listen to in the car

Most kids need a little help and entertainment in the car - and that’s normal. Books would be a great option, but if your kids are anything like mine, reading while travelling makes them travel sick. And no parent wants to be dealing with that.

That’s why the members of my family are avid audiobook listeners. My kids love listening to them as they gaze out the windows with their imaginations whirring. And, just quietly, I like listening to most of them, too.

I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks over the past nine years as a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au. So, here are my family’s top audiobook recommendations for your family to listen to in the car so you can get the kids off screens and their imaginations flowing.

This is one of our daughters’ favourite audiobooks. The main character, Ella Brook, has a big secret – her mum can turn into a fairy. All she must do is close her eyes tight and say “marshmallow”. Unfortunately, her mum’s magic doesn’t always go to plan and they end up on some crazy adventures that Ella must help resolve, all while keeping it secret from her “not best friend” Zoe, who lives next door.

Written by Sophie Kinsella, Mummy Fairy and Me is lighthearted and fun listening that has my girls completely gripped. We love to imagine that I could turn into a fairy and have those adventures, too.

My family was first introduced to the hilarious 13-Storey Tree House book series when the mini books were a giveaway with our weekly supermarket shopping – and we still read them. My kids love the fun, silliness and creativity of the writer, Andy Griffiths, and the illustrator, Terry Denton, as the two main characters.

The tree house they live in is ever expanding with crazy quandaries and inventions until it ends up with 169 floors in the 13th book. Each story is full of whimsy like magic beans, boxing elephants, underpants, un-inventors, runaway prams, runaway bums and their interactions with Andy and Terry’s demanding boss “Mr Big Nose”.

It’s a great listen for all ages.

We made our way through all the Roald Dahl books and loved them. Our favourites are:

George’s Marvellous Medicine

This is my favourite. I even listen to it when the kids aren’t in the car. A young boy called George concocts a magical potion made of household ingredients like floor polish, shampoo, engine oil etc. to cure his mean and nasty grandmother. As he gives her each dose it has some unexpected effects, making her grow to an enormous size. George’s mischievous work creates chaos as his grandmother gets larger and results in a giant chicken on the farm too.

Matilda

All kids love the Matilda story whether they’ve read the book or watched the movies. Kind, bright Matilda Wormwood has self-absorbed and neglectful parents, while at school the hideous and cruel principal Miss Trunchbull uses kids for shootout practice. As Matilda discovers she has magic powers, she uses her intelligence and newfound powers to escape her home life and gains revenge on Miss Trunchbull, finding comfort in a kind teacher called Miss Honey. A funny and gripping story for kids to listen to.

The Witches

Another fantastic and enthralling Roald Dahl story. An orphaned boy goes to live with his grandmother, a “witchophile”. While staying in a hotel, the boy stumbles upon a witch convention. The leader of all the witches, the Grand High Witch, catches him and another boy, Bruno, turning them into mice. She plans to turn all the children in England into mice and it is up to him and his grandmother to stop them. The descriptions of the witches and their scabby scalps underneath their wigs will have your whole family gripped on car journeys.

James and the Giant Peach

This is a great story for children of all ages to listen to. James and the Giant Peach is a story of an orphan, James Henry Trotter, who escapes his cruel aunts and enters a magical giant peach. Inside the peach he befriends a group of talking insects and they head off on a magical adventure across the Atlantic Ocean inside the peach.

Listen to these stories and more from Roald Dahl on Spotify

The latest in David Walliams’ World’s Worst book series, the World’s Worst Superheroes is a collection of hilarious and action-packed stories featuring the silliest, bravest, and strongest superheroes the world has ever seen.

We found these instantly engaging for short journeys. You don’t have to listen from start to finish and we dip in and out, always finding something entertaining and funny to keep the kids enthralled.

This is a fun adaptation of the Betty MacDonald stories, and this series features an old lady who lives in an upside-down house.

Each story focuses on a child in her neighbourhood and their bad habits like fussy eating or not washing, which kids listening can associate with. She tackles them with magical and funny solutions that have our kids giggling.

These are written and read by Isla Fisher, with great character voices making them entertaining and great for listening to in the car.

Jake and Jemima have a new babysitter called Marge who is mischievous and takes them on chaotic and funny adventures. With her rainbow hair, Marge loves to bend the rules and make a mess. Always causing trouble and chaos, they are hilarious stories for car journeys.

This book series has my kids enthralled and they are chewing their way through them.

Each story is based around a bunch of magical misfits whose superpowers don’t quite work the way society thinks they should (the storylines are brilliant for neurodivergent kids and their parents).

Each story centres on a special ‘Upside-Down Magic’ class at Dunwiddle Magic School, with the main character, Nory, and her friends ending up in all sorts of adventures and magical disasters.

Although the books need no introduction, the audio versions make wonderful listening for the whole family, especially for those longer road trips.

The first two books, Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets, are more suited to younger listeners and the following five books are better for kids as they get older.

We love Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series where Joe, Beth and Frannie discover a magical tree in the Enchanted Wood near their new home.

They have exciting adventures in fantasy lands at the top of the tree and make new friends with characters like Moonface, Silky the fairy and Saucepan Man. Everyone’s imaginations are captivated by the adventures and car journeys go quickly listening to these stories.

Who doesn’t grow up reading the Chronicles of Narnia?

This exciting seven-book series takes listeners through the wardrobe portal to the world of Narnia where the four siblings help Aslan, the lion leader of Narnia, to defeat the White Witch who has created an eternal winter. The four young siblings have amazing adventures and must overcome great challenges in this fantasy land.

It is an engaging and exciting series for the whole family to listen to.

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