"When you hear the chime, it'll be time to turn the page."

August 22, 2014 10:13 AM

Feeling nostalgic for those Read Along Adventure books of your youth? Well, this site has you covered with vintage audio files paired with Flash animation of the books (so you don't even need to turn the pages). List of titles here. Of course, if you're looking for the same format but with a harder edge, the Space Monkey X Audio Workshop just recently started creating their own based on "R" Rated films of the time. Their first project? John Carpenter's The Thing.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (19 comments total)

THIS IS AWESOME. Cannot wait to do these with my five year-old.

I still have fond memories of Star Wars. "You will know it time to turn the page when you hear R2D2 beep like this: 'whee-ooo-whirp-whirp-WHORP-WOO-OO."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:41 AM on August 22, 2014

I still own more than a few of these, on 7" vinyl, complete with their books. I should try to find them and see if any of them are needed to help them flesh out their list.

I loved these as a kid.

Actually, loved even more the Disney 12" equivalent, with gatefold covers and 12" square pages covered with text and illustrations taken from the source movies. Was like a condensed audiobook of the movie. The one I remember the best is Robin Hood, which I can still nearly play in its entirety in my brain.

Sadly, YouTube is failing me for not actually having that posted anywhere. *grumble*
posted by hippybear at 10:49 AM on August 22, 2014

Wonderful! What a trip down memory lane. If anyone else is disappoiinted that the read-along adventures site doesn't have Peter and the Wolf, I found it here.
posted by OrangeDisk at 10:50 AM on August 22, 2014

Wow, this makes me feel old ... I totally was into book-and-record sets, but this list doesn't go back far enough to cover the ones I grew up with. I can still hear in my head, clear as a bell, the sound effects in this one.
posted by jbickers at 10:52 AM on August 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

My friend Tony made a parody read-along for The Exorcist.
posted by larrybob at 10:53 AM on August 22, 2014

My family used to take these epic 3-week summer vacations with the trailer hitched to the car (parents are teachers). Both of my parents get sick when reading in cars. When I was little, my dad recorded himself reading ALL of my books onto cassette tapes. He had a bell and everything for the page turn. In this way, we crisscrossed the US, me following along in my books with my homemade books on tape in my earphones. Thankfully I can read in cars just fine.
posted by atomicstone at 10:58 AM on August 22, 2014 [5 favorites]

What, no De La Soul is Dead?
posted by Ham Snadwich at 10:59 AM on August 22, 2014

Aw, I loved these. I had Robin Hood, too, hippybear! I can't remember if I had tapes (seems likely) or just 45s. I had a cassette player and was constantly making "radio shows" and taping things off TV, but I can't remember if any of my read-along books used them.
posted by emjaybee at 11:04 AM on August 22, 2014

I'm so glad that someone is (was? in 2008) doing this. I only wish that his tastes ran closer to mine - most of my fond memories are of "reading" along to nursery rhymes and Rainbow Brite.
posted by twoporedomain at 11:04 AM on August 22, 2014

I learned to read with these little records.
posted by tofu_crouton at 11:05 AM on August 22, 2014

My mom actually just brought some of these up on her last trip. Some of them have aged better than others. We had to hide Brer Rabit and the Tar Baby because my toddler thought it was Bugs Bunny and it's kinda hard to explain why Brer Rabbit is a problem to a two year old.
posted by HMSSM at 11:13 AM on August 22, 2014

Actually, loved even more the Disney 12" equivalent, with gatefold covers and 12" square pages covered with text and illustrations taken from the source movies. Was like a condensed audiobook of the movie. The one I remember the best is Robin Hood, which I can still nearly play in its entirety in my brain.

I think I might've had that Robin Hood one also. But for me the big one was The Sorcerer's Apprentice on one side, and Peter and the Wolf on the other, both read by Sterling Holloway (the voice of Winnie the Pooh).
posted by dnash at 11:15 AM on August 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

When I was little, my dad recorded himself reading ALL of my books onto cassette tapes. He had a bell and everything for the page turn.

That is a champ dad.
posted by Iridic at 11:52 AM on August 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Agreed, Iridic.
posted by atomicstone at 11:57 AM on August 22, 2014

"Rainbow Brite, who's she?"
posted by soelo at 12:16 PM on August 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I remember having these in grade school, but our period in the library was not quite long enough to ever actually finish one, even with us rushing over to the corner with the tape player and popping Tron or The Black Hole in immediately after showing up.

We had a similar problem with Oregon Trail, but that was because of the time wasted having to finish the assigned Number Munchers first.
posted by ckape at 1:50 PM on August 22, 2014

I had a few of these. I think my most-listened and read one was the Disney The Haunted Mansion one... but I also had The Black Hole and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Neither of those two contained any nightmare fuel scenes (zombie Cygnus crew members/Black Hole hellscape/Nazi facemelting) and I was always simultaneously relieved and disappointed.
posted by usonian at 2:08 PM on August 22, 2014

I had The Empire Strikes Back on vinyl. I had lost the book ages ago, and then found a copy in a used book store when I was in high school.

I then recorded the vinyl onto a cassette tape, and took it with me to college.

The opening spiel was my answering machine message. "You'll know it's time to turn the page when you hear R2D2 beep like this:" *beep*

My soon-to-be husband hated that. He was already calling internationally - having to sit through all that just to leave a message...

But, on the other hand, Star Wars.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:50 AM on August 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I loved these growing up too. Mine were from the 70s, more like what jbickers links to above - 45rpm records with companion books.

One was a GI Joe adventure where he had to infiltrate Spy Island. The second side of the record began with a buzzing siren and an amplified voice shouting "Attention! There is an intruder in the building!"

Well, my devious young brain and I left the record player plugged in, turned on and turned way up, needle in the groove at the beginning of the second side, and then shut off the outlet via the light switch and left the room.

My grandmother, who walked in the room next and flipped on the light switch, was not amused.
posted by jammy at 5:36 AM on August 23, 2014 [2 favorites]