SYNC YA
Literature into Your Earphones
2 Free
Audiobook Downloads Each Week
June 14 -
August 22, 2012
Teens and
other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen
to bestselling titles and required reading classics this summer. Each week
from June 14 - August 22, 2012, SYNC will offer two free
audiobook downloads.
The audiobook
pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the
YA title's theme and is likely to show up on a student's summer reading
lists. For example, Laini Taylor's Daughter
of Smoke and Bone, the first book in a new series about a girl who opens a
door to two otherworldly cities at war, will be paired with Charles Dicken's A
Tale of Two Cities.
To find out
when you can download titles to listen to on the run this summer, visit www.AudiobookSync.com
or text syncya to 25827.
This week's selections:
June14 – June 20, 2012
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch, Read by Dan Bittner (Scholastic Audiobooks)
Description from Sync:
Description:
In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is
to keep moving.
In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has
been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious
strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were
among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in
search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and
his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to
Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. Then
Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept
things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong,
chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that
will change Settler’s Landing–and their lives–forever.
AudioFile Magazine Review:
“…Dan Bittner skillfully embodies the teen as tragedy strikes
and Stephen must suddenly fend for himself…Each outburst, each emotional
shutdown, each request for help is perfectly believable when presented
in Bittner’s even but emotionally layered delivery…Bittner’s
well-tempered narration suits both the action scenes and the moral
conundrums that follow.
”
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Frank Galati [Adapt.], Read by Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, and a Full Cast (L.A. Theatre Works)
Descriptions from Sync:
Description:
Drought and economic depression are driving thousands from
Oklahoma. As their land becomes just another strip in the dust bowl, the
Joads, a family of sharecroppers, decide they have no choice but to
follow. They head west, towards California, where they hope to find work
and a future for their family.
AudioFile Magazine Review:
“With a photographer’s eye for honest detail and a musician’s
ear for the era’s language and dialogue, John Steinbeck’s Dustbowl epic
of displacement, heartache, and hope became both a touchstone and
lightning rod in American literature as soon as it was published in
1939. The novel continues to resonate and L.A. Theatre Works’s full-cast
performance of Frank Galati’s Tony Award-winning stage adaptation hits
all the high points. In this story of family and survival, Jeffrey
Donovan provides a solid voice and foundation for the Prodigal Son
figure, Tom Joad. Francis Guinan finds the wisdom and humor in the
broken preacher, Jim Casey. And veteran Broadway star Shirley Knight
shines as the matriarch, Ma Joad, bringing heart, soul, and tears to
every line. A fine introduction to Steinbeck’s world.”
