Playaways

Isn't this a cute little thing? It's a Playaway, a digital audio book that's about 2" by 3" in size. It comes with its own little set of earphones and a black lanyard so you can hang it around your neck. There are no tapes or cds, so there is nothing to lose or scratch and only one object for a librarian to track.

I had seen a small display of Playaways in our local Borders and had bought the only title that was appropriate for my school, "Eragon," by Christopher Paolini. At about $60, it was pretty expensive, but I used a store coupon and got it at a more reasonable price. Since it was being marketed to bookstore customers and not libraries, the Playaway didn't come in any kind of shelvable packaging. So I just wrapped the earphones and lanyard around it and put it out on the new book rack with a sign explaining what it was. It's been a big hit!

But when I went back to buy more, I found that Borders wasn't selling Playaways anymore and that Follett was the official distributor for the school library markets. While I couldn't use a store discount to lower the price, I did get a great package that's easy to either display separately or on a shelf.

I'm curious to see what type of response these new Playaways get from the kids. My library hasn't had any audio books for kids, so this is new territory. The language arts teachers are evenly divided between those that think that listening to a book isn't the same as reading it and those who think that listening to a book can be a big help to reluctant or struggling readers. I figure that if so many adults enjoy listening to audio books, why not let kids in on that pleasure as well?