Gathering everyone for quality family entertainment can be as important as sitting down to dinner together. In today’s fast-paced world of hundreds of television channels, millions of Web sites and iPods in every kid’s backpack, sometimes it seems that entertainment is becoming a solitary experience that each family member enjoys alone. One innovative form of family entertainment that is becoming more and more popular with parents is the audiobook — stories the whole family can listen to on CDs, at home and in the car. Particularly popular, these days, are fantasy and magic-oriented tales that can be engaging for both parents and children alike. We all like a good story. It’s no wonder more families are turning to audiobooks, as nothing beats having a great storyteller read one to you. Audiobooks are being used by parents as a great way to get kids to use their imagination, and as innovative tools to get children interested in reading. As many parents can attest, audiobooks make for wonderful diversions on those long family car trips. Some great ideas for enjoying audiobooks with your family: * Schedule regular audiobook nights the way you would a movie night, with snacks. * Treat new audiobook releases the way you would new movies and get the whole family excited for upcoming stories. * Make the car a place for storytelling. Instead of turning on the radio, engage your family’s minds by taking audiobooks on the road.

Clive Cussler, the Grand Master of the American action adventure novel, grew up in Alhambra, California. He later attended Pasadena City College for two years, but then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War where he served as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer in the Military Air Transport Service. Upon his discharge, he became a copywriter and later creative director for two of the nation's leading ad agencies. At that time, he wrote and produced radio and television commercials that won numerous international awards one at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Cussler began writing in 1965 and published his first novel featuring Dirk Pitt® in 1973. His first non-fiction work, THE SEA HUNTERS, was released in 1996. Because of this work the Board of Governors of the Maritime College, State University of New York considered THE SEA HUNTERS in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and awarded Cussler a Doctor of Letters degree in May of 1997. It was the first time since the College was founded in 1874 that such a degree was bestowed. As THE SEA HUNTERS and THE SEA HUNTERS II novels relate, Cussler is the founder the National Underwater & Marine Agency, (NUMA) a 501C3 non-profit organization that dedicates itself to American maritime and naval history. Cussler and his crew of marine experts and NUMA volunteers have discovered over 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites. After verifying their finds, NUMA turns the rights to the artifacts over to non-profits, universities, or government entities all over the world. Some of these finds include the C.S.S. Hunley, best known as the first submarine to sink a ship in battle; the Housatonic, the ship the Hunley sank; the U-20, the U-boat that sank the Lusitania; the Cumberland, sunk by the famous ironclad, Merrimack; the Confederate raider Florida; the Navy airship, Akron; the Republic of Texas Navy warship, Zavala, found under a parking lot in Galveston, Texas; and the remains of the Carpathia, the valiant ship that braved icebergs to rescue the survivor's of the Titanic. In addition to being Chairman of NUMA, Cussler is a fellow in both the Explorers Club of New York and the Royal Geographic Society in London. He has also been honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration.

Audio recordings of language programs—streaming—have an advantage over print or academic classes because hearing is how humans learn to speak. That is how we learned our native tongues, and how we effectively learn second languages. As babies, we listened to our parents speaking. In our hard-wired desire to communicate, we learned our native language by imitating them. According to linguists, babies begin by distinguishing basic syllables, and around 3 months, start to babble, making simple sounds (“ba-ba-ba” or “ma-ma-ma”). They also imitate the tonal changes of their parents’ language. By sixmonths, they can distinguish the sounds of their native language fromthose of foreign languages and begin to practice its sounds, intonations, and rhythms.Most children by the age of 1 year can say a few simple words, even if they aren’t clear on theirmeanings. At 18months, most children have a speaking vocabulary of eight to ten words. By 2, they begin forming simple sentences. And then language fluency begins to soar. In the early 1900s, European linguists proposed that language learning would be better if it were conducted in the target language. In this approach—called the Direct Method (or Natural Method)—all directions, explanations, and definitions are given in the language being taught. In a French class, French and only French is spoken or read. All grammar is learned inductively. While this method most closely imitates the way we learn our first language, it is difficult to teach and can be frustrating and discouraging to learners. Most audio-based language learning programs combine both native and target languages into talking phrasebooks.

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who made his first published appearance in 1887. He was devised by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases. He is perhaps the most famous fictional detective, and indeed one of the best known and universally recognizable literary characters. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring his creation. Almost all were narrated by Holmes' friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, with the exception of two narrated by Holmes himself and two more written in the third person. The stories first appeared in magazine serialization, notably in The Strand, over a period of forty years. This was a common form of publication at the time: Charles Dickens' works were issued in a similar fashion. The stories cover a period from around 1878 up to 1903, with a final case in 1914.