This summer, SYNC will be providing two free teen audiobooks each week from May 5th to August 11th. Each week will focus on a specific theme, pairing a classic YA title with a more modern YA title. This week starts Thursday, July 28th with Pennies For Hitler by Jackie French and Juba! by Walter Dean Myers.
Narrator Humphrey Bower brings Georg Mark’s childhood in Nazi Germany to life with precise German accents and phrases. As Georg becomes George to escape Nazi persecution, first in England and later in Australia, Bower presents realistic characterizations with English and Australian accents. The voices Bower creates for Georg’s Australian foster family, the Peaslakes, make them a memorable example of the indomitable will of ordinary citizens in wartime. Steady, appealing narration enhances this slowly building story of home and identity. Bower’s ability to capture the history and setting of Georg’s story makes French’s novel ideal for use in school as well as for general reading. The Library currently does not own a copy of this title, but it is available in both book and CD formats through other libraries in our system, and we would be happy to request it for you.
Myers’s posthumously published novel, set in the 1840s, delivers a gripping story based on the life of a real dancer and free slave known as Master Juba, who lived in the nineteenth century. This engaging historical novel is based on the true story of the meteoric rise of an immensely talented young black dancer, William Henry Lane, who influenced today’s tap, jazz, and step dancing. Incorporating the Irish step dancing he saw around him as a child in Brooklyn with African and minstrel styles, Juba developed what came to be known as tap dancing and was celebrated in London, as well as New York, until his early death at 27. With meticulous and intensive research, Walter Dean Myers has brought to life Juba’s story. However, listeners unfamiliar with old minstrel shows will miss the historical pictures in the print edition, and, though Juba and his friends are mostly well realized by Gill, the challenge of the Irish accents makes it sometimes problematic to determine which character is speaking. The Library currently does not own a copy of this title, but it is available in both book and Playaway formats through other libraries in our system, and we would be happy to request it for you.
These titles will be available to download for free during this week only (7/28 to 8/04) at the SYNC website. The theme for this week is “Fiction ignited by history.”