Spotlight on a Sponsor: Live Oak Media

Live Oak Media is the award-winning audio publisher of distinctive read-along recordings of classic and popular children’s literature for ages 3-12. Our recordings have received three Odyssey Awards, the American Library Association’s (ALA) award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, including the inaugural award in 2008; the Audie Award for Distinguished Achievement in Production; three Grammy® Awards; and numerous Audie Awards, ALA Notable Children’s Recordings, and outstanding reviews. As a small, family-owned company, we are dedicated to providing our young listeners with meaningful reading and listening experiences.

From founders Arnie and Debra Cardillo

At Live Oak Media, we personally produce about 20 new titles each year, marketing and selling them through our catalog and website, as well as to distributors. Our readalongs are distinctive because of the extensive process that we’ve developed to create an audio recording of a picture book or beginning reader.

A readalong is not just another audiobook. Words and text in picture books or early readers are picture dependent, and our readalongs are produced to be listened to with the book. We approach our productions with two purposes in mind: to help children learn to read and develop language skills; and to make the reading experience fun! We try to place and draw the child into the world of the book, into the illustrations and words, by using sound effects, music, and production techniques that support reading and listening.

Each book is specially selected from many wonderful titles that are published by various book publishers. Then, we cast the narrator, carefully choosing the appropriate voice, or voices, to embody the diverse facets of the individual characters in the book. With the narrative voice at center stage, our producer and engineer spend hours editing, adding appropriate sound effects, and the perfect musical accompaniments. The final outcome is much more than a word-for-word recording—it’s an original production that is both educational and entertaining.

A selection of recordings that are especially important to us are the ones in our series of Live Oak Music Makers. A cool and innovative imprint that we developed when we first acquired Live Oak Media in the late 90s, the Music Makers are recordings of picture books that have strong musical components and which weave together the words, the art and the music to create an altogether new and meaningful reading and listening experience. The books in this collection celebrate music from Blues to BeBop, Salsa to Jazz, and highlight artists such as Celia Cruz, John Coltrane and Django Reinhardt. The classic AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL is featured in its own readalong, with beautiful artwork depicting American landscapes and a variety of moments in history, and the anthem sung by Sloan Wainwright & choir. JAZZ, by Walter Dean Myers, is the winner of the American Library Association’s inaugural Odyssey Award. Many other titles in this imprint have received Grammys, Audie Awards and ALA Notable Recordings.

We’re very proud of our award-winning productions, and the stellar list of authors, illustrators, and narrators we work with to create some of the finest and most innovative audio for children. As a small, family-owned company, we are also committed to providing our customers with excellent customer service. It’s very important to us that when you call us, you speak to a person not a machine, and that your concerns are handled with ease and great care. So give us a call. We love to listen!

Arnie and Debra Cardillo
Live Oak Media
Where Great Children’s Books Play Nicely

Wonderful multicultural audiobooks from Live Oak Media include

IMANI’S MOON

H.O.R.S.E. A GAME OF BASKETBALL AND IMAGINATION

MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD by Charles R. Smith;illustrated by Shane Evans (available February 2016)