Children’s story books have lots of fun, dynamic, larger than life characters. To keep kids entertained and engaged, character voices need to be exaggerated yet believable. They need to capture the personality of the characters, and carry lots of emotion. This is different from typical character voice work, where voices can be more subtle and nuanced, and the tone of a character voice can be more serious. With kids’ stories, the tone is often whimsical, lighthearted, humorous, villainous, heroic and educational. The successful character voice actor will know how to strike the right tone for a children’s story and convey the appropriate message for their audience from two to tween.

Children’s stories can come in many different formats, including audiobooks, videos, or other types of narration. In all of these cases, the voices of the characters should be able to stand alone whether or not there are any accompanying visuals. In other words, children in the audience should get a sense of each character – their intentions, desires, and individual personality traits – simply from their voice. This is why character voice over is so important for effectively telling children’s stories.

Kids can be tough critics, sometimes even more so than adults! If they start to feel skeptical of a character, bored, or uninterested in the story, they will make their feelings known. That’s why a character voice actor working on a kids’ story or youth education project needs to understand the special considerations relating to this audience. Children’s storytelling needs to not only maintain the listeners’ attention, it needs – most importantly – to inspire them!

How can character voice talent achieve these goals? There are many strategies for trying to capture the hearts and minds of a young audience, but one of the key ingredients is passion. A voice actor who knows how to translate their passion for a character into the energy in their voice will be able to successfully bring that character to life. Modulating their vocal pitch from one phrase or line to another will also keep their speech dynamic and exciting. In addition, exaggerated speech can make normal characters into more fun caricatures – with all the hilarious, outlandish, and gregarious qualities that kids greatly enjoy.

Kid stories are often meant to be both entertaining and educational. They are a great opportunity to teach kids important lessons through the art of storytelling. Story arcs often involve conflict between characters, and then demonstrate constructive ways of resolving these kinds of situations. The voice over in kid stories guides them through the characters’ transformations, with the emotion in a character’s voice changing from being upset or hurt to feeling joy, love, and even forgiveness.

In addition to learning about interpersonal relationships, kids can gain valuable knowledge about the world around them from listening to the voice over in stories. Some examples include the diversity of animals and plants, or the different kinds of jobs that exist like policeman or astronaut, just to name a few! The characters in a children’s story have the power – through voice over – to deliver this information in an inspiring way, making it easy for kids to have fun while learning.

As a professional voice actor with a wide range of unique and wacky character voices, and a real passion for telling children’s stories, I offer the total package when it comes to kid story voice over. I’ve produced hundreds of stories for kids of all ages, and I know what it takes to keep them hanging on every word.

Between my professional experience and having four kids of my own along with 2 grandkids and counting, I’ve developed an expansive repertoire of character voices that appeal to the child audience. From the lovable and cheerful animals of the forest, to the grumpy old grandpa, to the enchanting wizard, I can capture a rich variety of characters with my voice and also be the captivating narrator that ties the whole story together.

Kids relate to other kids, and I have the special ability to produce a silly little boy voice in addition to all the adult characters.

Let’s get started today and make the characters in your children’s story come to life!

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