60 Best Audio Books for Children Under $3

Nathan, Emma and I love reading our chapter books together. After finishing up the long Farmer Boy, I decided to read some short chapter books next. We started reading some of the Magic Tree House books. They are short enough that we can read one book a day. Even so, my eyes were attempting to close during our reading time the other day.  I then remembered I had a couple Magic Tree House cds. Nathan happily finished the rest of his chapter book that day by listening to someone else read and I was reminded how much I love audio books. There are so many amazing audio books for children available! Why am I not using them more?

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I have a collection of picture books with cds that I used in my Kindergarten classroom when I was teaching. My students loved listening to those books! Now all four of my children have made good use of those audio cds, too.

I started a new search for audio books and quickly realized how many wonderful audio books for children are available! I’ve shared about finding cheap Audible books for adults before but never focused on kids. I was excited to discover how many great child’s picture books have audio versions available. 

The bonus is that children’s audio books are much more reasonably priced that adult audio books. Adult audio books normally run in the $20 range, but I was amazed how many cheap audio books for children there were – many under $3!

I knew I had to share this list with all the other moms and teachers out there. I love reading to my children and spend a lot of time doing so, but sometimes I need help. That is where audio books for children come in.

I believe books count whether you are reading them yourself, listening to your mom read to you, or listening to an audio book on cd. All are valid forms of reading. If you struggle with reading aloud to your children but know you should read more, audio books are a great way to make this happen!

Here are some tips and tricks to building a collection of audio books for children without spending tons of money. 

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read more in my disclosure policy.

Where can I get free audio books for kids?

Let’s start with the true bargain – free audio books! Did you know you can listen to many audio books for children for free?

There are several audio book sites that have completely free audio books available. This is a great place to start.

Storynory has free audio stories that are specifically for kids, including fairy tales and some original stories.

Overdrive / Library is one of my favorite places to get free audio books. Simply sign up for an account and link it to your library card. Once linked, you have access to thousands of free ebooks and audio books that you can download from your computer and Overdrive app. It is very easy to use and a great source of free reading material!

These audio book sites are amazing but sometimes, it is nice to own an audio book – especially for those books your children read over and over. For that reason, I think one of the easiest ways to get cheap audio books for kids is at Audible.

How do I get cheap audio books for children?

The nice thing about purchasing Audible books is that you do not need to be a subscribing member to find great deals. In fact, all of these deals that I am going to share with you today are found simply by going to Amazon and purchasing the audio book directly.

If you are looking to develop an audio library for your kids, I would start by purchasing audio books to go with picture books your children already own. Does your child have an absolute favorite book or series? Start there.

Next, I would purchase the audio books that your children love to read but you don’t own – and add the accompanying print version after you purchase the audio. As an early childhood educator, I should add that it is important to pair a print picture book with the audio so young children can still enjoy the pictures in the books. 

Once you have the audio books, you can allow your children to listen their stories on the Audible app whenever you want. Perhaps you want to set up a special audio book time as you are fixing dinner, or at a separate quiet time. However you choose to use them, you can develop a full library of children’s audio books for under $20! 

Here are 60 of the best audio books books for kids on Amazon – all priced under $3!

(Note: Prices on Amazon do fluctuate but these prices are accurate as of February 2024.) 

Audio Books for Children Under $1.50

When I first started compliling this list, there were many children’s books available for $0.99 or less. Inflation has now hit even the audio books so prices have increased…but many great deals are still available!

• The Entire Peter Rabbit Collection (an amazing deal!)
• The Velveteen Rabbit – Currently Free!
• The Gift of the Magi
• Llama Llama Misses Mama
• A Weekend with Wendell
• The Napping House
• Little Toot
• Goodnight Moon
• Harold and the Purple Crayon
• Harold’s Fairy Tale
• The Little House
• The Snowy Day
• Miss Nelson is Missing
• Miss Nelson Has a Field Day
• The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash
• A Kiss for Little Bear
• Madeline’s Rescue
• Mighty, Mighty Construction Site
• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
• Caps for Sale
• Little Excavator
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Brave Irene
• Brown Bear & Friends – All 4 Bear Stories, Plus Bonus Language Tracks
• Little Blue Truck Leads the Way
• The Pout-Pout Fish
• 5 Minute Pout-Pout Fish Stories (12 included)
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

Audio Books for Children Under $2

• Clifford the Big Red Dog
• Tikki Tikki Tembo
• Strega Nona
• Llama Llama Red Pajama
• Llama Llama Time to Share
• Llama Llama Mad at Mama
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
• Miss Nelson is Back
• Stone Soup
• The Kissing Hand
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
• Doctor DeSoto
• A Bad Case of Stripes
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
• Where the Wild Things Are
• The Very Busy Spider
• Owl Moon
• Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Horton Hears a Who
• Oh, the Places You’ll Go 
• Fox in Socks
• The Cat in the Hat
• The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
• Dr. Seuss’s ABC
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Audio Books for Children Under $3

• Curious George Rides a Bike
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Strega Nona and Tikki Tikki Tembo (3 stories)
• Pinkalicious
• Purplicious
• Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses
• Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues
• Johnny Appleseed
• Pecos Bill
• John Henry
• Davy Crockett
• Squanto and the First Thanksgiving
• King Midas and the Golden Touch
• Rip Van Winkle
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff & The Three Little Pigs
• Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
• Jack and the Beanstalk and Other Stories
• The Good Egg
• The Sour Grape
• The Smart Cookie
• The Couch Potato
• The Bad Seed
• The Pigeon Has to Go to School
• The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines – One of my favorite kids books!

What audio book collections for children are available?

If you want to add more books to your children’s listening library, there are many fabulous collections available. While a collection is priced slightly higher, you are getting more books so it often works out to less than $1 a book. Llama, Llama is a favorite in our house! If your child has a favorite series, start with that collection and grow from there.

• Llama, Llama Collection (8 stories)
• Llama, Llama Complete Collection (20 stories)
• Pete the Cat’s Super Cool Reading Collection (5 stories)
• The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites (11 stories)
• The Fancy Nancy Audio Collection (31 stories)
• Pinkalicious: The Pinkamazing Storybook Collection (6 stories)
• Magic Tree House Collection (1-8 stories)

To get the best deals on audio book collections, I recommend signing up for a free trial of Audible. It is simple and allows you to get more books for free. You do not have to stay a member for any length of time. If you decide it is not for you, you can cancel at anytime and your 2 free books will be yours to keep.

1. Sign up for a free trial of Audible. Right now, when you sign up for a free 30 day trial you can get 2 free audio books from Audible! This is a great way to get a more expensive collection for free.
2. Choose your two free book collections using your credits.
3. Run the Amazon / Audible Matchmaker by clicking here. This link will search all the Kindle books you’ve ever purchased and show you what the price is for any Audible whispersync upgrades. While you might not find many matches with children’s books, you may find a great deal on one of your own books.

What else do I need to know about purchasing cheap audio books?

Once you purchase an Audible book, it is yours forever. Whether you are paying for an account or not, your audio books are always yours. You can listen to them at any time from your computer or on the Audible app.

Remember, you do not need an Audible subscription to buy Audible deals. Yes, I still recommend you sign up for the free trial because you can get two free audio books to start your collection. After that, it’s easy to cancel your account and purchase a good audio deal when you see one.

The best way to encourage reading is to read more. 

Audio books for children are a great way to encourage literacy in your home! Embrace them.  Listen to them. Enjoy them.

Do you have a favorite children’s book or series to read with your child? If so, I’d love to know! We’re always looking for new books to read!

Want to know about more about finding deals on audio books? Be sure to read how to get free or cheap Audible books – to find some more audio book deals for adults and kids, too!