With Lee in Virginia: Audio Adventure Review!

I love the way audiobooks can bring stories to life and captivate kids!   For the most part, I don’t enjoy reading out loud, so audiobooks are a perfect solution for us!   Heirloom Audio Productions offered us the opportunity to review With Lee in Virginia earlier this summer.   I’ve been intrigued by their previous productions including In Freedom’s Cause, and so was eager to give this audio adventure a listen.   They sent us a beautiful 2 cd set, containing over 2 hours of audio.

Heirloom Audio Productions focus on several important aspects in their productions that definitely set them apart.  First, they believe that history demonstrates God’s sovereignty and is Christ-centered.   The events of history revolve around a very significant event – that of Christ coming!

Second, they believe that history is important to remember, so we can learn from it!    George Santayana, author of The Life is Reason, is famous for his quote, “He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.”   There are many things in history I’d rather not repeat!

Third, studying history from a Christian perspective helps us engage the culture around us and respond to worldviews that are contrary to ours.

Beyond those central ideas,Heirloom Audio Productions goes above and beyond in creating a high quality production!   Their star-studded cast for With Lee in Virginia includes artists like Kirk Cameron, Sean Astin from Lord of the Rings, Chris Anthony from Adventures in Odyssey, Kelsey Lansdowne from Batman, and the fabulous Jim Weiss (best known in my world for his dramatic readings of The Story of the World, which my son listens to incessantly.)

With Lee in Virginia is adapted from a book of the same title, by G.A. Henty.   Henty was a war correspondent and a prolific writer, and many of his novels are available for free Kindle download.

This story follows a 15 year old young man named Vincent, who joins the calvary of the Army of North Virginia.  His opportunity to watch, work, and fight alongside Robert E. Lee inspires Vincent to take a bold stand for God and his people.

We loved the dramatic telling of the story.  It literally sounded like we are listening to a movie, with all the different auditory aspects.   Super D and I listened to a good portion of the story together.  Then we set up the cd player in his room and he built with his Legos while he listened.  He built a boat that was used for smuggling slaves in the story and a dock/hut where they arrived in Canada.   I liked his attention to detail – his boat docked precisely into the hut.  They had a roof for shade, a couch to rest on, and a stove to cook on.

Great use of imagination and hands on work while listening! 🙂

Super D recently turned 8, and parts of the story were overwhelming to him.   We will probably wait a year before we listen to this adventure again, and work through the Study Guide together.

As part of the With Lee in Virginia Audio Adventure, Heirloom Audio also provided a number of downloadable bonuses including a 48 page Study Guide.  This will be perfect to use when we study the Civil War in greater depth in 4th or 5th grade.

You can connect with Heirloom Audio Productions on Facebook here or here, Twitter, or Google +.