Audio Recordings Contribute to Quality Family Time

For some quality family time, why not fix a bowl of popcorn and some hot chocolate and gather ‘round . . . the stereo. A sampling of prime storytelling audio recordings:

Hallelujah Handel! The Children’s Group/BMG, ages 6 to 12. CD: $15.98-$18.99; cassette: $8.98-$10.99. 48 min., (800) 668-0242. This new offering from Classical Kids, the creator of the award-winning “Mr. Beethoven Lives Upstairs” audio, combines exquisite choral and orchestral music with a gently told tale about a young 18th century orphan who sings like an angel, but has been rendered speechless by an unknown calamity.

Composer Handel and his violinist friend Katerina (from a previous Classical Kids recording, “Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery”) discover the boy’s secret, but it is Handel’s music that helps him let go of his dark past and speak again.

The compassionate, gracefully performed story by Douglas Cowling captures a sense of mystery, time and place, and the generous excerpts of uplifting music, including several “Messiah” selections and other works, provide magic just right for the holiday season.

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“Grandma’s Lap Stories,” August House Audio, 57 min., ages 3 to 7. Cassette: $12, (800) 284-8784. This is lore born in the Appalachian mountains, where the oral tradition carries tales from generation to generation. Acclaimed storyteller Donald Davis, whose North Carolina drawl has been heard on CNN, “Nightline” and American Public Radio, serves up tall tales and poems cozily wrapped in reminiscences of his loving grandmother and life on her farm.

The material will sound familiar, but each is engagingly different, from “Jack Be Nimble” and “The Little Red Hen” to “The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday”--a “Three Little Pigs” variation.

Other Davis cassettes to ask for: “Christmas at Grandma’s” for ages 7 to adult and “Mrs. Rosemary’s Kindergarten,” about school in the ‘50s and a family vacation, for ages 10 to adult.

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“Wacka Wacka Woo,” August House Audio, 54 min., ages 4 to 8. Cassette: $12, (800) 284-8784. National Public Radio commentator, storyteller and singer Bill Harley presents his astute take on childhood’s tribulations and triumphs in songs such as “Is Not, Is Too” and rib-tickling shaggy dog stories such as “Soap, Soap” and “Aunt Edith Meets Tricky,” covering everything from escaped hamsters to obnoxious siblings and crotchety relatives. For older listeners, ages 8 to adult, there’s “From the Back of the Bus,” 65 minutes of dead-on-target funny and telling school-themed stories and songs.