The Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works containing quality "spoken word" performances aimed at children. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
The award was first presented to Audrey Hepburn and producers Deborah Raffin and Michael Viner in 1994 for the album Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales. Its last winners were the artists, producers, audio engineers, and audio mixers who contributed to the album Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies in 2011, when it was announced the award would be combined with the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children to form the Grammy Award for Best Children's Album.
Tom Chapin and producer David Rapkin hold the record for the most wins in this category, with a total of three. Artists Bill Harley and Jim Dale, along with producer Arnold Cardillo and audio engineers David Correia and Rory Young, are the other musicians to win the award more than once, all winning it twice. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has also won the award, along with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren, for their work on the album Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf at the 2003 installment of the awards.
Read more about Grammy Award For Best Spoken Word Album For Children: Recipients
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—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
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“I would hope that parents and grown children could be friends. When a friend confides in you that she’s going to do something that you think is most inappropriate, foolhardy or even dangerous, wouldn’t you as a friend say so—in a calm, supportive way? Yet I have to be so careful what I say to my children. I have to walk on eggs to be sure I’m not hurting their feelings or interfering with their lives.”
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