Record a Story makes a good book better

I'm a book addict, and to some extent, a purist-the kind who flinches my son's books come with too many bells and whistles and directions. Why try to make a book better? Isn't the whole joy of reading the simplicity of it? So you can imagine my surprise when I ended up loving a new line of books called Record a Story.

As the label suggests, Record a Story lets parents (or grandparents, or even kids themselves) record their own voices reading books, resulting in a custom-recorded book. While that sounds pretty tame in our time of technology, it's actually just the right amount of genius. Kids can flip through books at their own pace, reading the story along with the narrator. Even better, it keeps them in touch with that voice telling them a story. While this might have seemed like a silly perk to me before I had a kid, now it seems like a truly inspired idea. With a husband who travels a lot and grandparents that live pretty far away, I can see just how much hearing the voice of someone you love(or miss) at night can help comfort, soothe and reinforce bonds for a child. In fact, Publications International, Ltd , the company that makes the books has partnered with the USO and United Through Reading to donate 5,000 books to deployed soldiers-a pretty perfect use for technology, if you ask me.

Record a Story books come in a few titles, including: Guess How Much I Miss You, Elmo's Together at Heart, and 'Twas the Night before Christmas.