AudioBook SYNC Blog

Whether or not you're a fan of audiobook listening for your own narrative enjoyment or learning, if you read our SYNC blog even in the off-season, you recognize both the appeal of the format and its role in encouraging youth to engage with well constructed and well performed literature. What do you do when that recognition you have becomes the doormat for someone else's heavy-booted rejection of this combined literary-performance art form?

Many of us involved in developing, maintaining, and spreading the word about AudiobookSYNC as an annual program for teen listeners are also big believers in libraries and their collections. Free access to a vast array of choices underwrites our--and teen--access to unbounded intellectual freedom.

As teachers and librarians know, literacy is a lot more than reading: it's a whole suite of skills that allow the literate person to reach beyond what they know from personal experience, to discover information and ideas, and to use these to understand more and better about the world and themselves. Whether the literacy skills involve visual reading, listening reading, video observation, or critical evaluation of directions, being literate provides teens and adults with the ability to make social changes through civic engagement.

By the time we're in our teens, we're expected to be able to read not only books but also complex directions, ingredient labels, news accounts, and more both fluently and with a good grasp of the content as well as how that content might be meaningful. Reading is a part of every high school course, including mathematics, art, and vocational track programs. Teens who read with facility, however, may have fallen into the habit of speed reading or skimming, neglecting nuances that are, in fact, important to comprehension of the text in full. Listening to audiobooks--at the speed each was intended to be played--can help good readers become better critical thinkers, empathizers, and engaged citizens. Here's why and how:

How do you find audiobooks that make you want to to listen all the way through--and then feel a little sad when they've run their course? How do you talk about audiobooks with teens and others whom you are trying to help find good audiobooks options?

Schools are opening everywhere for the 2018-2019 academic year. As you head back after a summer of SYNC, prepare to discover that you've learned more than just the content in your free audiobooks.

Today's the last day to respond to our survey. While we await the final submissions and work through them all, we've asked you on various social media channels to share what's in your headphones right now.

Just as we heard from many of you the past 10 days or so, we'll miss SYNC 2018 edition, too. Thank you for joining in the listening and audio bookshelf-building! What happens now?

Our 12th week of AudiobookSYNC 2018 brings us a pair of novels with distinctly Puritan Colonial roots. Thanks to Listening Library for providing them.

This week we’ve paired a classic most high school students will encounter before graduation with a contemporary gothic novel that offers a good introduction to the genre.