On May 5th Abbey will release a brand new range of audio CDs, featuring fun-filled stories and lively tunes that all young children will enjoy, competitively priced at just £4.99. In addition, Abbey are re-launching some of their best-selling audio cassettes with delightful new artwork and prices ranging from just £1.99 to £4.99.

Abbey's range of audio products includes fun character favourite Postman Pat, much-loved stories from famously successful authors such as Enid Blyton, Michael Rosen and Charles Dickens, children's classics including The Secret Garden, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book and Wind In The Willows and an audio treasury of sparkling songs for young children, endorsed by the Pre-School Learning Alliance, with The Wheels On The Bus, A Golden Treasury Of Nursery Rhymes, Fun Song Factory plus many many more.

Plus, Abbey are extremely excited to have recently re-acquired the exclusive audio rights to Thomas The Tank Engine and a fun selection of the delightful, classical Thomas stories will be released on CD and cassette format in the very near future.

At present the audio market is flourishing with children's audiobooks currently dominating the Nielsen BookScan Spoken Word charts with an average of 7 of the top ten titles in any period being children's. Audiobook turnover for 2001 was estimated at £72.1 million of which £25.8 million was children's, up from £10.4 million the previous year.

Further, children's characters are always strong sellers: in a four week period monitored by BookScan the Tweenies sold more than 100,000 copies across four titles.

Audio titles also look forward to increasingly exciting times ahead as the book trade confirms that there is potential for still more growth in audio sales. "There is a real demand for audio; booksellers and publishers need to capitalise on this encouraging figure and work together to find new ways to promote audio to the public", according to Sue Baker of the Hammicks book trade who added that, "As awareness of the huge range of books on audio continues to grow so will sales".

Meanwhile, Scott Pack, Buying Manager for Waterstone's, is determined to make Waterstone's a "destination store" for audiobooks with plans to commission exclusives from publishers and include CDs in all front of store promotions.

With a strong list of character product and the rights in books by well-known authors such as Michael Rosen, the Tempo Children's Audio list is well placed to become a leading player in children's audiobooks.