Do you love audiobooks that make you laugh out loud? Do you need an audiobook for a roadtrip that the whole family will love? Look no further than Ladybird Funny Stories for 5 Year Olds, featuring 10 hilarious mash-ups written by one of the funniest children’s authors in NZ, Peter Millett.

In Ladybird Funny Stories for 5 Year Olds Peter Millett takes stories and characters that are familiar and mashes them up to create a new story that is far funnier than the originals. The Big Naughty Wolf is trying to get in to Hansel and Gretel’s tasty hideaways to get their gold coins, Humpty Dumpty visits the Three Bears’ House, the Bad Fairy curses the princess, turning her in to Sleepwalking Beauty, The Gingerbread Man has a race with a turtle, and Alice has a very peculiar dream. These are stories that you’ll be happy to listen to again and again.

Each of the stories in this collection are funny, silly, and incredibly entertaining. On our commute to and from school, me and my 5 year old giggled along with the stories and shared shocked expressions with each other when something unexpected happened. We were gobsmacked when Humpty served omelets and scrambled eggs to the Three Bears! Peter Millett is a skilled storyteller, whose stories feel like they could be original fairytales, with a dash of silliness. I love the way that he has managed to weave different stories and characters together, while making it feel like they belong together. Most of the stories are just under ten minutes long so they are perfect to share at bedtime, at a break during the school day, or on a long car trip.

The stories are narrated by actors Rhashan Stone and Gemma Whelan and they do an amazing job of bringing Peter’s stories alive. They use different voices for the characters, do their own sound affects, and their British accents make them a joy to listen to (I always prefer British narrators over American narrators). They each take turns reading a story so you get a bit of variety.

My daughter and I had different stories that we loved the most. She loved Humpty Dumpty and the Three Bears and Cinderella and her Gruff Stepsisters, while my favourites were The Magical Elves of Hamelin and Sleepwalking Beauty. The magical elves (similar to those in The Elves and the Shoemaker) have poor eyesight and aren’t very good at reading, which leads to some hilarious mix-ups for the old man and lady in the story. The Bad Fairy in the Sleepwalking Beauty story is not ‘Bad’ because she’s evil, but rather bad at magic, so her curse on the princess doesn’t turn out quite how she was hoping.

Although it says ‘5 Year Olds’ in the title, this collection will be one that the whole family will enjoy. Grab a copy of Ladybird Funny Stories for 5 Year Olds from the eAudiobook retailers below:

Listen to a free audio sample at Audible: https://adbl.co/3fUo2uZ

Purchase on CD from The Nile here: https://bit.ly/3s8kRCe

Also avaialble to listen to on Kobo, Audible and Google Play.