Get ready to promote the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production with FREE audiobook downloads from SYNC! Sync  is an initiative to encourage audiobook listening by teens, coordinated through the unbranded Audiobook Community, and supported by members of the audiobook publishing community. Each week, two totally FREE audiobooks – one classic paired with a themed YA favorite – are available without any need for personal information on the Sync website. Today is the last day to grab The Angel Experiment by James Patterson (read by Evan Rachel Wood) paired with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (read by Simon Vance) in the kick-off “Man or Monster?” theme week. All that’s needed is the free OverDrive download software – a great way to encourage teens to start using your public library’s downloadable media. Plus, there’s an entire tool kit on the Sync website to help promote titles in YA departments and on library webpages. Although the promotion is targeted towards teens, there are no age restrictions – so feel free to encourage anyone to grab a great title for summertime listening. If you’ve never listened to an audiobook, take this opportunity to download marvelous productions for your own listening!

The week of July 15 – July 21 is extra awesome. The Sync theme of the week is “Pirates,” featuring Listen & Live Audio’s Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren and Random House Audio/Listening Library’s Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, narrated by Alfred Molina. What a perfect tie-in to your summer reading program’s “Making Waves @ Your Library” theme. Plus, the two titles were BOTH named Odyssey Award Honor titles! How will you pull the FREE resources from Sync into your summer programming? A feature on your library webpage promoting the Odyssey Award titles available through your downloadable digital service? Volunteens doing informal demo of OverDrive downloads throughout the library? A “Family Listening” vacation audiobook suggestion display in the AV department?  Sync title “Listen-alike” bookmarks in a display featuring print, CD, and Playaway versions of hot titles? I’d love to see some photos of creative displays combining pirates, ocean waves, a Homeric voyage, and vacation audiobook listening

Here’s the entire Sync schedule:

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