For audio books, the terms “abridged” and “unabridged” aren’t adequate, because some publishers offer “unabridged audio” for a rewritten version of a work.

For “classic” novels, I’ve often encountered “unabridged audio books” that were based on rewritten versions:

• An “unabridged” audio recording, titled Romeo and Juliet, which recited the text of the story from Charles & Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare; and
• An “unabridged” audio recording, titled Frankenstein, which recites the text of a special ten-chapter remedial-reader version.

I’ve also encountered “abridged audio” (from eBay and Amazon “Marketplace” resellers, and on some publishers’ sites) for some books that weren’t clearly marked as such.

Some factors to watch for:

• Audio length (65 minutes isn’t enough to read all of Frankenstein);
• Reading level (Frankenstein isn’t written at a fourth-grade level);
• Length of any linked print work (e.g. if the publisher offers a read-along book that’s 48 or 64 pages, or has exactly 10 chapters);
• Remedial: Look for any language signaling “remedial” or “struggling” readers.
• Pace: However, note that for some books, there are “slower pace” versions of the unabridged audio book available.  (When I subbed in several classrooms in one middle school, one teacher raved about how she loved the special unabridged audio CD for The Outsiders that was read at a “slower pace.”)
• Publisher name: check the publisher’s web site (for example, many Edcon audios are abridged/remedial versions). Unfortunately, many distributors resell audio books without identifying the real publisher.
• Narrator: Some vendors also sell “audio versions” that are merely computer-generated speech, not a human reader. Look for a name for the person reading or narrating the work.

It’s very annoying to find that the process of buying an audio book (which ought to take 3 minutes, once you have funding) actually takes 15 or 30 minutes because of these issues — and even then, 10% of the time you find that the product isn’t what you thought you were ordering.

Always consider asking someone for guidance — if not another teacher in your school or district, just post an inquiry on a teachers’ discussion forum (“Which audio version[s] of Frankenstein have you used, and what do you recommend?”).

On LessonIndex.com, I’ve tried to distinguish “abridged audio” from complete audio editions, but sometimes it’s just not clear.

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This is a slightly modified version of Mark Welch’s earlier post at http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/