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!

Download Some Free Audiobooks This Summer!

Some of you may know that I am an audiophile. If you know what an audiophile is. It means that I love to listen–to audiobooks. This can be an expensive habit, but this summer, beginning July 1 and continuing through September 1, Sync, aka AudioFileMagazine, is making two young adult audiobooks available for free each week! All you do is go to AudioBookCommunity and join the Sync group. You just have to give them your email address and be 13 or older (so be 13 or older!). Don’t worry; it’s free.

One book each week is a contemporary teen favorite, and the other is a classic with a similar theme. For example, the first week they are offering The Angel Experiment by James Patterson, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. In case you have been living on another planet, The Angel Experiment is the first volume of the Maximum Ride series, and it just so happens to have been our most requested title during the last weeks of school. So get a jump on next year by downloading it to your iPod before you go on vacation with your family this summer, and listening to it in the car on the way. Then try out Frankenstein as well! Sure beats listening to your annoying sibs! Here’s a review of Sync’s recording of  The Angel Experiment from the Sync website:

“James Patterson’s facile writing and Evan Rachel Wood’s expressive, wide-eyed reading make this entrée for the teen audience a remarkable success. A group of bird-kids, genetically altered with avian DNA, and led by Max, have escaped from the experimental “school” and must survive the perils of other mutants as they save the youngest member of their flock. Wood has all the slang and colloquial pacing down pat. Teens will love the chaotic chases and frantic action–Wood in Max’s first-person narrative has the aura of a comic book superhero. The abridgment is smartly done, and Wood keeps listeners’ attention. ” R.F.W. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Here’s the complete list of available titles:

Available July 1 – July 7
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Available July 8 – July 14
Over the End Line by Alfred C. Martino
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Available July 15 – July 21
Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Available July 22 – July 28
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Available July 29 – August 4
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Available August 5 – August 11
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Available August 12 – August 18
Beastly by Alex Flinn
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Available August 19 – August 25
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Available August 26 – September 1
Handbook for Boys by Walter Dean Myers
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

You can click on the titles that appear to be links (they are!) to see the reviews. And yes, you saw correctly. DRMS favorite The Hunger Games is also included. Can’t wait for volume three, Mockingjay,  to be released in August! And The Power of One from the July 8 selections? One of Mrs. Bullen’s alltime favorites! So whattya say? Are you in?