200 Best Hoopla Audiobooks for Kids

This list of over 200 best Hoopla audiobooks for kids is the list I wish I’d had a few years ago when my kids first started listening.  It’s also the list I now refer to when my kids ask me what to listen to next.

I hope this list of 200 best Hoopla audiobooks for kids helps you to skip over the worthless twaddle available on Hoopla and only listen to the good stuff.  Stories have enormous power in the life of a child (or an adult!).  What a tragedy to waste that opportunity with mindless, dumbed down, insipid writing.

Instead, teach your kids to gravitate towards life-giving stories like the ones you’ll find on this list.   

6 tips for Hoopla listening

Hoopla is a FREE app that works like a digital extension of your local library.  To sign up for a Hoopla account, all you need is your library card number and an email address.  

1. Unabridged
Always look for unabridged versions.  Don’t insult your kids by presenting them with dumbed down versions of the originals.  Just skip right over any books bearing the word “retold” or “abridged”.

2. iPod + headphones
Call us old fashioned (you wouldn’t be the first!) but we give each kid their own iPod and headphones for their 6th birthday.  The only thing they may use the iPods for are taking pictures, listening to audiobooks, and when they get a bit older, listening to approved music. 

They absolutely love listening to audiobooks on their iPods during rest time, free time, and while doing chores.  My youngest son loves to listen while playing with his Schleich farm and other open-ended toys.  My older sons listen as they do dishes, vacuum, clean the bathroom, and more.  

I like my kids to use headphones and not earbuds in order to protect their still-developing ears.  I also have an initial talk with them about volume levels.  Once in a while I’ll listen to their headphones during their listening session to make sure the volume level is appropriate.   

3. Individual accounts
Hoopla gives you 10 borrows per month. Since my kids can each blow through that many books on their own, we signed them up for individual Hoopla accounts. Two things necessary for a Hoopla account: a library card number and an email address. For my two youngest children, I used two of my own many email addresses to set up their accounts. My oldest son has his own email address.

Pro tip: store each child’s login info in the notes app on his iPod.  Believe me, you’ll be glad you did.  I take the extra step of storing each kid’s login info in my own notes app on my phone, too.  This provides double security for very important information!  

4. Favorites
Hoopla has a favorites feature that works especially well for younger kids. My 7yo is not yet a strong reader nor can he navigate the Hoopla website on his own. So I use the list below to search Hoopla for him, and I mark each title I think he’ll like.  (Just tap the little heart icon.)  I taught him how to find his “favorites”, which allows him a good deal of independence with his listening.

5. Searching
Searching Hoopla can feel overwhelming. One tip that helps me is to click on a favorite book and then click on the author’s name to find other titles by that same author. Similarly, when you click on a favorite book you’ll notice recommended similar authors listed below. Click on those authors and you may discover a new favorite!

6. Bluetooth
If you drive an older car without Bluetooth technology, you can use this Bluetooth hack for older cars.  Our family car (a Honda Pilot) and our farm truck do not have Bluetooth, and this hack works well for listening to Hoopla both vehicles.

200 Best Hoopla Audiobooks for Kids

You might be wondering how I got 200 from a list of 100.  The answer is that you’ll find more than one title for many of the authors listed below. 

For example, the excellent biography series by Janet and Geoff Benge includes over 50 titles.  You’ll also find many titles and series by Cynthia Rylant, James Herriot, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, and others. 

In fact, if I were to count every single possible title from the list below, I’m guessing the total would land somewhere closer to 300.  This list should keep your family listening to the good stuff for hours and hours! 

Age recommendations

I tried my best to list the following titles in approximate age order.  Therefore, the books at the top of the list are best for young listeners while the books at the very end are good for older listeners or joint family listening.

And by the way, there are many more wonderful picture book titles than the ones I’ve listed below.  In our opinion, it’s usually not worth it to “waste” our borrows on a short picture book.  But perhaps you have very young children who aren’t ready for more advanced titles, and maybe they’ll listen to those picture books multiple times per month.  In that case, borrowing picture book titles might be worth it for you.  Feel free to search Hoopla for additional picture book titles!

Availability

We have noticed that some titles become unavailable and then come back later.  I have no idea why this happens, but thought you should know!  And of course more titles are added all the time, so be sure to conduct your own searches from time to time.

Happy listening!

1. Frog and Toad and others by Arnold Lobel
2. Daniel’s Duck and others by Clyde Robert Bulla
3. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and others by Virginia Lee Burton
4. Make Way for Ducklings and others by Robert McCloskey
5. The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne (narrated by Peter Dennis)
6. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (narrated by Peter Dennis)
7. A Year at Brambly Hedge collection by Jill Barklem
8. Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
9. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
10. Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
11. Aesop’s Fables
12. Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
13. James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
14. The Beatrix Potter Collection
15. Little Bear’s Visit and others by Else Holmelund Minarik 
16. Brave Irene by William Steig
17. The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward
18. The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night by Peter Spier
19. The Little Red Lighthouse by Hildegarde H. Swift
20. Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev
21. Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
22. Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
23. Misty of Chincoteague and other horse stories by Marguerite Henry
24. A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
25. The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
26. Raggedy Anne Stories by Johnny Gruelle
27. Thorton Burgess: many titles
28. Cynthia Rylant: many titles
29. The Children’s Book of Heroes by William J. Bennett
30. Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester
31. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
32. Rascal by Sterling North
33. Lad, A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune
34. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
35. Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage and others by Classical Kids
36. Hallelujah Handel by Susan Hammond
37. Tchaikovsky Discovers America by Susan Hammond
38. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
39. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
40. Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary
41. The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
42. Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
43. Henry Huggins series by Beverly Cleary
44. Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
45. The Moffats and others by Eleanor Estes
46. The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
47. Green Ember series by S.D. Smith
48. All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor 
49. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
50. Sarah, Plain & Tall series by Patricia MacLachlan
51. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
52. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
53. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
54. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
55. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
56. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
57. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling- our favorite narrator is Jim Weiss, but he’s hard to find on hoopla
58. The Melendy Family series by Elizabeth Enright (The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spider Web for Two)
59. Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright
60. The Beloved Dearly by Doug Cooney
61. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
62. In Freedom’s Cause and others by G.A. Henty
63. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
64. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
65. By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
66. The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
67. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
68. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
69. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
70. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
71. Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
72. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
73. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
74. The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
75. Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson
76. Indian Captive by Lois Lenski
77. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
78. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
79. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O’Brien
80. Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes
81. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
82. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
83. Bonhoeffer, Student Edition by Eric Metaxas
84. The Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit
85. The Wouldbegoods by Edith Nesbit
86. Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge
87. On the Far Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Note that this is the 2nd book in a series.  At the time of this writing, book 1 was not available on Hoopla.  Also look for other titles by the same author.)
88. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
89. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
90. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
91. Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
92. The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat
93. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
94. The Vanderbeekers series by Karina Yan Glaser
95. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
96. Come On Seabiscuit! by Ralph Moody
97. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
98. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
99. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
100. YWAM Publishing biographies (50+) by Janet Benge, Geoff Benge
101. Voice of the Martyrs biographies (15+)

Two more that our family enjoyed but might not be everyone’s cup of tea:

1. Nanny McPhee Returns by Emma Thompson
2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 

More book ideas for kids:

• Favorite Winter Books for Children
• 11 Favorite Children’s Books About Seeds & Gardens
• Favorite Books for Homestead Kids
• Favorite Children’s Books about Birds
• How to Choose the Best Children’s Books