FREE YA Audiobooks!!!

SYNC Publicity Announcement:

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. 

SYNC Titles

Summer 2012

06/14/12-06/20/12

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch, Read by Dan Bittner (Scholastic Audiobooks)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Frank Galati [Adapt.], Read by Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, and a Full Cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

06/21/12-06/27/12

Irises by Francisco X. Stork, Read by Carrington MacDuffie (Listening Library)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Read by Wanda McCaddon (Tantor Media)

06/28/12-07/04/12

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud, Read by Simon Jones

(Listening Library)

Tales from the Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang, Read by Toby Stephens

(Naxos AudioBooks)

07/05/12-07/11/12

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Read by August Ross (AudioGO)

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Read by Ian Holm (AudioGO)

07/12/12-07/18/12

Guys Read: Funny Business by Jon Scieszka [Ed.] et al., Read by Michael Boatman, Kate DiCamillo, John Keating, Jon Scieszka, Bronson Pinchot (Harper Audio)

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories by Mark Twain, Read by Norman Dietz (Recorded Books)

07/19/12-07/25/12

Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter, Read by Kirsten Potter (Oasis Audio)

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Read by a Full Cast (AudioGO)

07/26/12-08/01/12

Pinned by Alfred C. Martino, Read by Mark Shanahan (Listen & Live Audio)

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Brilliance Audio)

08/02/12-08/08/12

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Read by Khristine Hvam (Hachette Audio)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Read by Simon Prebble (Blackstone Audio)

08/09/12-08/15/12

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, Read by Rupert Degas (Harper Audio)

Dead Men Kill by L. Ron Hubbard, Read by Jennifer Aspen and a Full Cast

(Galaxy Press)

08/16/12-08/22/12

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, Read by Jay Laga'aia (Bolinda Audio)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Read by William Roberts (Naxos AudioBooks)

Chalk Walk Fun

Last Thursday the Urbana Free Library hosted our first Teen Summer Reading Program Chalk Walk. The day was very chilly and rainy, but two teams toughed it out and made some fantastic murals! Thanks to all who joined us!!! 

Here are my favorite pictures from the day, I hope you enjoy them as well!

Pinned by Alfred C. Martinez

Looking for a little sports-related action as we spring into spring?

Wrestling is often considered a fall sport, but as the November-March wrestling season draws to a close in some schools across the country, Pinned by Alfred C. Martinez might be what you're looking for. It's an exciting story that switches between the thoughts of Ivan and Bobby, high school seniors on opposing teams who are both aspiring to be New Jersey State Wrestling Champions. Martino’s straight-forward writing style is as stream-lined and hard-hitting as his main characters, and anyone interested in this sport will hang onto every word.

No matter how you'd prefer to read Pinned, there's an option for you. You can request the book in print, CD audiobook, and Adobe PDF e-book formats.

You say you want a Revolution?

Andi's little brother has died. Her mother is lost in despair. And, her father has left the family for a younger, pregnant girlfriend. She feels alone, abandoned, and suicidal. Andi's genius IQ can't help her figure a way to fix her family or herself. At the brink of failing her senior year of high school, she comes home one night to find her father has committed her mother to a mental hospital and expects Andi to accompany him to Paris on a business trip.
Having little choice in the matter, Andi glumly goes. Once there she finds the journal of a young girl, hidden since the French Revolution. Recovered from the catacombs beneath Paris, the journal tells of tragedy and speaks of hope. Andi finds comfort in reading the story of another young girl who was forced to play along as a Revolution tears her family, her country and her life apart. But as Andi reads, she grows so engrossed that she becomes unable to tell the past from the present and finds herself in a revolution of a whole different kind.

In her book, Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly deftly weaves together a story that transcends time. Citing popular musical lyrics throughout, she brings the past alive connecting it to the present through descriptive images, parallel story lines, and the realization that as history repeats itself, so does music. The suspense is all engrossing, and I found myself up until the wee hours of the morning, just wanting to read one more chapter, to find out one more detail, to pick up one more clue. Like Andi, the main character, I got carried away in a story that wasn't my own finding it difficult to tear myself away to face my reality.

I highly recommend Revoltion if you want a book that will provide you an escape to another time, another world, another life. Just don't forget to come back.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

At eleven years old, Taylor Markham's mother abandoned her near a convenience store on Jellicoe Road. Taylor is now seventeen and in charge of her boarding school's dorm. As leader, she finds herself in secret negotiations with other teens from other schools in the area for bits and pieces of the Australian countryside surrounding the school, a game with a deadly serious overtone. When Hannah, the one adult she trusts, disappears from school grounds one day, Taylor's mind whirls with questions. Where did Hannah go? How did the territory wars between Jellicoe School students, Townies, and Cadets--a tradition several decades in the making--begin? What does the handsome and infuriating Jonah Griggs, leader of the Cadets, know about her past? And who were those five kids Hannah wrote about in an unfinished manuscript she left behind at Jellicoe?

Find out by reading Jellicoe Road, a mysterious and poetic tale of recurring dreams, connections between past and present, trust between friends, and family secrets. You can place a hold request for the book in print. Those who enjoy eBooks can also check out the title in Adobe ePUB format on compatible computers or eReaders.

Are you FABULOUS?

Are you fabulous? If you're Tiny Cooper, you have no doubt you are and that you need to spread it around. His plan? To write, produce, and star in a play for his high school that announces his own trials and finally his acceptance with his homosexual love life. Not something normally attempted by a high schooler? Well, that's because there's only one student as fabulous and self-aware as Tiny Cooper. However, there are two students named Will Grayson. Will 1 is Tiny's best friend, a heterosexual who has a difficult time relating to others and expressing his emotions. Will 2 is a love interest who has a difficult time relating to others and expressing his own emotions. The parallels drawn are an important message reminding us that no matter who we are, it's a safe bet that we have all struggled to become aware and accepting of our own unique characteristics that really do make us all fabulous.

John Green and David Levithan do a wonderful job of merging their humorous writing styles to create a tale that is both appealing and relevant to teens. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a read I quickly became engrossed in and as I laughed at the conversations between characters, I also grasped that importance and seriousness of the situations they experienced. By the end of the story you'll realize that you have some fabulous to spread around as well.

Also available on disc and as a Playaway.