2020 Partners
SYNC is available through Sora, the student reading app from OverDrive.
Available on Apple Apps and Google Play stores.
*SYNC audiobooks are intended for personal use only and may not be copied and distributed under any circumstances.
*Titles in the SYNC program appeal to a wide range of interests, maturity, and ability levels. Please preview the materials to decide if the titles match your personal needs.
*Comments made on the site will be moderated.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in Literacy
Thursday, October 1, 2020
If you have a lot of experience listening to books, as well as reading them with your eyes, you certainly have noticed that some words, terms, and speech patterns evoke different feelings when you hear them than they might when you see them written. In both ways of reading, words and verbal expression are powerful. Yet they carry different shadings of power for the person reading, too.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in Literacy
Thursday, September 17, 2020
A phenomenal side effect of the ongoing pandemic era retrofitting of planned events is the huge increase of opportunities we all have to meet authors, narrators, readers, and others around the world in programs that, previously, would have been limited to one specific geographic location, entry fees, and other barriers.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in Literacy
Thursday, September 3, 2020
With a new and unusual school year now underway, families as well as teachers and librarians are taking renewed interest in exploring how learning and literacy "works." To help you find resources that address the how and the why underpinning the use of audiobooks for literacy enhancement, we turn to the Sound Learning initiative.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in Literacy
Thursday, August 27, 2020
How audiobook listening can spice up rote physical tasks and extend literature access to those unable to access print both receive popular attention. Did you know that listening to audiobooks actually proves beneficial to highly proficient print readers, too?
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in Literacy
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Now that you have a new set of audiobooks you can listen to any time, let’s consider what #ListeningIsReading really means.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobooks
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Thousands of you generously provided responses to our end of SYNC season evaluation this year and we want to thank you for helping us to continue to improve and polish our annual program.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobooks
Thursday, August 6, 2020
We have been wowed by the creativity many of you showed in sharing news about each SYNC week offerings this season. With schools and libraries and other agencies shutting down around the world before the season opened in late April, we were more than ever reliant on teachers and librarians to help us reach teen listeners. And you came through generously and with imaginative messaging! Thank you!
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC publishers
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
From the chatter we’ve been hearing through your Tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, and assorted blogs, newsletters, and other news we’ve found online, it sounds like this year’s AudiobookSYNC program found some happy listeners! And we want to hear more from you.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, July 23, 2020
This week’s #OwnVoices audiobooks include a contemporary classic and a novel whose author continues to write award-winners. Thank you to Recorded Books and Candlewick on Brilliance for this tremendous pair!
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, July 16, 2020
In Week 12 of SYNC 2020, we turn our attention to how questioning what we believe we understand can lead us to more accurate truths. This week’s pair of free audiobooks explores the history and future of our Earth’s inhabitants using different literary approaches. Both are performed by full casts.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Here’s another pair of free audiobooks we planned before we knew that 2020 was going to need extra celebrations. Thanks to Naxos AudioBooks and Alison Larkin Presents, we are delighted to share two funny and thought-provoking listens.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, July 2, 2020
This week we feature a pair of titles published and made available to SYNC participants in conjunction with the We Need Diverse Books (#WNDB) campaign by authors and others in publishing. Thank you, Listening Library, for lending your support to including these in SYNC this season.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Week 9’s pair of teen novels provides listeners with different explorations of the power #OwnVoices books hold for everyone. Thanks to Blink and to Brilliance for this week’s free audiobooks.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Week 8’s theme this SYNC season is one of romance. However, our two audiobook selections are very different in their interpretation of that broad category of story type, and the performance choices are also unlike each other. Here’s another opportunity to explore how a theme can produce two very different listening experiences.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Week 7 brings SYNC participants two audiobooks that promise suspenseful listening. Thanks to Oasis Audio and to Dreamscape for these free audiobooks.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Our Week 6 pair of free audiobooks comes from the Listening Library imprint of Penguin Random House Audiobooks. In a necessary aside here, the week's titles and theme were selected months before current events in the U.S. However, the timing of the content's arrival seems prescient.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Every family relationship can be complicated. This week our two SYNC audiobooks explore how those complications can become the stuff of great storytelling.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Week 4’s free audiobooks bring listeners an #OwnVoices pair that include a stage play and a novel, each based on real events. Thank you L. A. Theatre Works and Scholastic Audio for these outstanding and free audiobooks.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, May 14, 2020
This week’s pair of free audiobooks include a classic and a title that puts a real historical character into a work of fiction. In both cases, listening readers are plunged into the worlds of some nefarious characters.
Written by Francisca Goldsmith in audiobook SYNC titles
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Week 2 of this year’s SYNC program provides participants with one #OwnVoices work of realistic fiction and another providing a journalistic account of factual events that are as compelling as anything a novelist might create.
