You Don’t Want To Miss These Free Downloads of Great Teen Audiobooks For Your mp3

Did you try last summer’s free YA downloads of great pairs of teen audiobooks from Sync? Well, you won’t want to miss this year’s great list of titles. Starting today you can download the 2011 Georgia Peach Book Award winner, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, and the William Shakespeare classic, Romeo & Juliet. In case you’re not familiar with Shiver, here’s a review of the audiobook from AudioFile:

As if high school weren’t already hard enough without adding werewolves to the mix! This earnest teen romance is presented alternately from Grace’s point of view and from Sam’s, so Jenna Lamia and David Ledoux trade off narrating duties. It’s an effective technique for the audio format. At one point in the story, Grace describes Sam and “the soft, sad shape of his lips, looking just like his voice sounded,” which is also a pretty good description for how Ledoux sounds. His funny, appealing, sometimes-wobbly voice is especially appropriate for a conflicted teenaged guy who also happens to be a werewolf. Occasionally overwrought or treacly, SHIVER is sure to appeal to fans of TWILIGHT and other paranormal teen fare. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2009]

Shiver and Romeo & Juliet are available for download June 23-June 29. Then June 30-July 6 you can download Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, a past Peach Award nominee, and The Trial by Franz Kafka, a related title. Here’s the AudioFile review of Little Brother:

In Cory Doctorow’s latest YA thriller, Marcus, a 17-year-old hacker, finds himself imprisoned by the Department of Homeland Security after a massive terrorist attack in San Francisco. In a sign of the times, the U.S. is becoming an Orwellian police state, and Marcus is the only one who can set things right. Kirby Heyborne is the perfect choice to narrate. His youthful voice offers a sly intelligence beyond its years while still managing to sound innocent enough to garner plenty of sympathy. Heyborne becomes Marcus in every possible respect, never reading, but simply living the role. Listeners will find themselves immersed in a genuine portrayal that is as seamless and well realized as the story itself. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2008]

Just go to the Sync site to see all the other titles available this summer, including DRMS favorite Revenge of the Witch (book one of the Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney, and Immortal by Gillian Shields. And those high-minded ones of you can get your classic fix with Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Remember: you only have one week to download each pair of titles, but then you have them forever! What a deal!

Check Out the 2011-2012 Georgia Peach Book Award Nominees

So here are next year’s Georgia Peach Book Award Nominees. You may have noticed that we already own several: Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and Shift by Jennifer Bradbury. Oh, and in case you were wondering about the winner of the 2011-2011 Georgia Peach Book Award: it’s Dean Rusk favorite Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Honor books were If I Stay by Gayle Forman and The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.

More About the Georgia Children’s Book Award Nominees 2011-2012

Need more info about next year’s Georgia Children’s Book Award Nominees? Then check out this slide show. You’ll want to read them all! Feel free to borrow this slide show and post to your own blog or website.

Georgia Children’s Book Award Nominees 2011-2012

While we are still anxiously awaiting the announcement of this year’s winner of the Georgia Children’s Book Award, the Georgia Children’s Book Award Nominees for next year (2011-2012) have been released by the Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature. Here’s the list of nominees:

• Alvarez, Julia (2009). Return to sender.
• Anderson, Laurie Halse (2008). Chains.
• Angleberger, Tom (2010). The strange case of Origami Yoda.
• Baskin, Nora Raleigh (2009). Anything but typical.
• Burg, Ann (2009). All the broken pieces.
• Clements, Andrew (2009). Extra credit.
• Collins, Suzanne (2008). The hunger games.
• Connor, Leslie (2008). Waiting for normal.
• Draper, Sharon (2010). Out of my mind.
• Erskine, Kathryn (2010). Mockingbird.
• Hiaasen, Carl (2009). Scat.
• Klise, Kate (2009). Dying to meet you: 43 old cemetery road.
• Korman, Gordon 2008). Swindle.
• Lin, Grace (2009). Where the mountain meets the moon.
• O’Connor, Barbara (2010). The fantastic secret of Owen Jester.
• Pearsall, Shelley (2008). All shook up.
• Philbrick, Rodman (2009). The mostly true adventures of Homer P. Figg.
• Sonnenblick, Jordan (2010). After ever after.
• Wiles, Deborah (2010). Countdown.
• Williams-Garcia, Rita (2010). One crazy summer.

The Dean Rusk Media Center already has some of these titles available if you want to get a head start on reading the books for next year’s Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl competition, or if you just want a suggestion for some great reading. Below is a list of the books we already have on hand. The number to the right indicates the number of copies available, if we currently have more than one copy. The author’s name is also indicated so you know where to look on the shelves for the book. We will have multiple copies of these books available for next year.

• Anything But Typical (Baskin)
• Waiting For Normal (2)(Connor)
• Out of My Mind (Draper)
• Scat (3)(Hiaasen)
• Swindle (Korman)
• All Shook Up (Pearsall)
• Extra Credit (Clements)
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg (Philbrick)
• Chains (Anderson)
• All the Broken Pieces (Burg)
• Origami Yoda (3) Angleberger
• The Hunger Games (billions and billions served) (Collins)

DRMS Survivors Pass Second Elimination Round

Congratulations to all of our Dean Rusk Survivors who made it to the second 2010-2011 Survivor party! This quarter’s competitive event was cup stacking, and the competition got pretty wild! At the 7D and 7M party, Liz P. won in the first round and every round thereafter to remain the ultimate champion! The big winners at the 7R and 7S party were Kenzie J. , Tate C. and Brandon B., all excellent competitors, with Kenzie coming out on top. At the eighth grade party, Nick H. was the top winner followed closely by Robert M. and Robert R. If you believe you are a Dean Rusk Survivor, be sure that you have read eighteen books by March 18 to be invited to the next party. You can take 18 AR tests or complete the form available from Mrs. Fleet or your reading teacher. You don’t need to read 18 new books, just a total of 18 since the beginning of the year. We’ll see YOU at the next Survivor Party!

Rusk Readers Rock!

So there was a Jell-O eating champ, I just got so carried away in judging it that I forgot who it was. But it was fun. I do recall that. Also the cheeseball ball. It was sick. In a good way. And I was informed that one of the cheeseball ball runners up was Dylan G. All other champions, please advise and I will announce your victories worldwide. For the record, these amazing seventh graders partied themselves to reckless abandon this week due to their amazing skills of reading:

• Ellie A.
• Ashley A.
• Amanda B.
• Caroline B.
• Kylee B.
• Nick B.
• Brandon B.
• Courtney B.
• Zach C.
• Tate C.
• Kimiya C.
• Madison E.
• Alex F.
• Zach F.
• Dylan G.
• Katelyn G.
• Stephanie G.
• Ethan G.
• Sydney McH
• Echo H.
• Hayes H.
• Elizabeth J.
• Mackenzie J.
• Braeden K.
• Hannah K.
• Elizabeth L.
• Carter L.
• Connor L.
• Luis L.
• Corey L.
• Jeremy M
• Austin M.
• Journey N.
• Sierra P.
• Elizabeth P.
• Laurencia P.
• Kyle R.
• Jenna R.
• Austin R.
• Wendy R.
• Jonathan S.
• Hunter S.
• Keyona S.
• Victoria S.
• Emilee S.
• Ashley S.
• Connor S.
• Trevor V.
• Kenneth W.
• Gillian W.

Congratulations Seventh Grade Survivors! You rocked reading!

The Champions of Cheeseball Ball!

Today was the first Survivor party with half of the seventh grade. Defeating all contendors in the no-hands, no spoons Jell-O eating contest were champions Jeremy M-I and Ethan G. Ethan G. could not be content with merely winning in one division, but went on to conquer all foes and become the Cheeseball Ball champion of the world. Well, DRMS. Well, 7th grade DRMS. Well, half of 7th grade DRMS. We also celebrated our most excellent readers with popcorn, soft drinks, cupcakes, and music. Rock on, readers!

The Book Fair Rocked!

 

Thanks to everyone who made the Book Fair possible! It could not have been a success without you. We made around $800 to buy new books plus we earned about the same amount in Scholastic books from the Book Fair. Thanks so much to our fabulous Dean Rusk volunteers. You rock!

The Book Fair is Here!

 

 

Come to the media center October 13 from 8AM to 3:30 PM or October 14-19 from 8 AM to 6PM and check out our great selection of books. We have the entire Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, including Mockingjay in hard cover for only $17.99. We also have the premier novel in the new Egyptian mythology series by Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid. For all you Vladimir Tod fans, there’s Twelfth Grade Kills by Heather Brewer. And don’t forget The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, the new Twilight novella from Stephenie Meyer. For all you graphic novel fans we have The Simpsons and Bone by Jeff Smith. And what’s a book fair without The Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not? And all new this year: young adult novels by favorite YA authors such as Sarah Dessen and award-winner Judy Blundell. Sign in to the media center when you enter the book fair and you could be the winner of $50 of free books!

Time to Get Back to Reading!

Welcome back! School started back yesterday, guys, and we have already had 7 classes today to check out books! Thanks to Mrs. Castrillon, Mrs. Burn, and Mrs. Herrera for visiting the media center on our first day of circulation for the 2010-2011 school year. Stop by soon to check out some books by these favorite DRMS authors!