http://librivox.org/kayrays-storytime-by-various/

It’s a collection of children’s stories and rhymes, and includes:

Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
The Old Woman and her Pig by Sara Cone Bryant
The House that Jack Built by Randolph Caldecott
Mother Goose by Eulalie Osgood Grover
The Old Man’s Bag by T. W. H. Crosland
Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures by Heinrich Hoffmann
Johnny Crow’s Garden by L. Leslie Brooke
Johnny Crow’s Party by L. Leslie Brooke
Book About Animals by Rufus Merrill
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Androcles and the Lion by Joseph Jacobs
The Master Cat, or Puss In Boots by Charles Perrault
The Little Red Hen by Florence White Williams
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Slant Book by Peter Newell
The Rocket Book by Peter Newell
and
The Mythological Zoo by Oliver Herford

They’re almost all picture books (except for a few that are chapters from larger books) and you can find them online at Project Gutenberg if you want to look at the pictures.

Thanks for proof-listening and cataloging, Elli! :)

http://www.archive.org/post/408542/archiveorg-will-be-dark-on-wednesday-january-18-to-protest-sopa-and-pipa

12 Hours Dark: Internet Archive vs. Censorship

The Internet Archive believes that it is critical to protest and raise awareness of pending legislation in the United States: House Bill 3261, The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S.968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

Archive.org is going dark from 6:00 am – 6:00 pm PDT on Wednesday January 18 (14:00 – 02:00 GMT) to drive a message to Washington. We need your help to do this.

Legislation such as this directly affects libraries (pdf) such as the Internet Archive, which collects, preserves, and offers access to cultural materials. Furthermore, these laws can negatively affect the ecosystem of web publishing that led to the emergence of the Internet Archive.

These bills would encourage the development of blacklists to censor sites with little recourse or due process. The Internet Archive is already blacklisted in China—let’s prevent the United States from establishing its own blacklist system.

For United States residents, please take action.

For non-US residents: Sorry for dragging you into this, and if you are willing, sign a petition to the State Department to express your concern.

–Internet Archive

For United States residents, please take action.

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

or ->

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

or ->

Here is the Congressional Switchboard Telephone Number:

1-866-220-0044

Be sure you have your ten-digit zip code so the switchboard can direct your call to the correct congressperson who represents you. You can find your ten-digit zip code on any piece of junk mail that reaches your home.

Wie der Grinch Weihnachten gestohlen hat:
http://www.archive.org/download/KayrayReadsToYou/dergrinch.mp3

My German isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good :)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss. Read aloud by me with help from Karen the Cat.

http://www.archive.org/download/KayrayReadsToYou/childs_christmas.mp3

Anyway, I’ve added “Stories of Great Composers for Children” to the “Kara’s Free Audiobooks” podcast:

Basic feed: http://kayray.org/audiobooks/podcast.xml
iTunes link: itpc://kayray.org/audiobooks/podcast.xml

Or if you can’t wait and want the whole audio book now:
http://librivox.org/stories-of-great-composers-for-children-by-thomas-tapper/

And the “Kayray Reads to You” podcast is still working on “By The Great Horn Spoon”:

Basic feed: http://kayray.org/audiobooks/kayray_reads.xml
iTunes link: itpc://kayray.org/audiobooks/kayray_reads.xml

Or get the whole audio book and many others here:
http://www.archive.org/details/KayrayReadsToYou

Enjoy!

The Girl on the Boat, by P.G Wodehouse

Also published as “Three Men and a Maid”. The maid of the title is red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina “Billie” Bennet, and the three men are Bream Mortimer, a long-time friend and admirer of Billie, Eustace Hignett, a lily-livered poet who is engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale, and Sam Marlowe, Eustace’s dashing cousin, who falls for Billie at first sight. All four find themselves on an ocean liner headed for England together, along with a capable young woman called Jane Hubbard who is smitten with Eustace, and typically Wodehousian romantic shenanigans ensue.

Hope you like it!

You can download it from my archive.org page:
http://www.archive.org/details/KayrayReadsToYou,
or from my “Kayray Reads to You” page here at my blog:
http://kayray.org/kayray-reads/

Blurb from Amazon:

Brimming with riveting adventure, the story is set during the Gold Rush. The fast-moving plot follows the high spirited young Jack and his aunt’s faithful butler, Praiseworthy, as they set out to strike it rich in order to support the financially strapped and beloved Aunt Arabella.

It’s a lot better than that description makes it sound, I promise :) If you like it, please buy a real paper copy!

The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper:

I read this book 4,728,759,276 times to Henry when he was little, and of course my mom read it to me. I love the illustrations, especially the cheerful food. I don’t know if you can see the illustrations clearly enough, but all the food has happy faces, and the milk bottles are marching along while the spinach dances. I also love it that a jack-knife is included in the list of toys.

Chug chug chug. Puff puff puff!

http://librivox.org/stories-of-great-composers-for-children-by-thomas-tapper/

There are links on that catalog page to each little book online, so you can look at the pictures while you listen :)

If you find an online source for any of the other little composer biographies, let me know. I think there around ten more that Gutenberg doesn’t have yet, and I’d be delighted to do a second volume.