Cue Up SYNC for Free Teen Audiobooks
26 free audio books that teens can download, enjoy, and keep forever!
For the ninth year, AudioFile Magazine is sponsoring an audiobook program that offers anyone aged 13+ the opportunity to download and keep a generous virtual shelf’s-worth of audiobooks. AudiobookSYNC is a summertime program designed to provide teens with plenty of varied opportunities to read with their ears. This year, the program runs from April 26 through July 25, with each of those 13 weeks bringing a new pair of free audiobooks to download and keep.
Both school and public libraries promote SYNC to encourage summer vacation reading and to support such group activities as classroom and book group discussions for which every participant has a guaranteed copy of the chosen title. SYNC downloads are for individuals only, not for adding to library collections, and this means that those who participate also control when they get around to listening to a title, as the audiobooks are for keeps.
Each week, one pair of audiobooks is available for downloading. These are paired thematically — sometimes by genre or subject, sometimes by performance style, sometimes as a tie-in to a public occasion, such as Juneteenth or Pride Week. From 7 AM Eastern Time each Thursday morning, beginning April 26, until 6:59 AM Eastern Time the following Thursday, until July 25, the week’s pair are free to anyone and almost everywhere. Of this year’s 26 titles, 19 can be downloaded anywhere in the world, 25 will be available to Canadian listeners, and those who participate from other countries outside the U.S. can find clear information on SYNC’s website about which titles can be theirs. The site also offers information about each title coming during this SYNC season, past titles, information about why librarians and other adults working with teens promote SYNC, and participant survey results from last summer.
This summer’s program includes some titles everyone will recognize as “for school,” including a full-cast production of Shakespeare’s MACBETH; those that have won significant awards, including THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY, by Luis Alberto Urrea; genre-blending popular titles, like Wendy Spinale’s steampunk EVERLAND; the bestseller SOLO, read by its author Kwame Alexander, and, of course, 22 other audiobooks. In short, a summer of SYNC is a perfect way for a teen to build a personal library to keep.
Follow all the 2018 download news on Twitter @audiobookSYNC and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SYNCAudiobooks/.
