This summer, SYNC will be providing two free teen audiobooks each week from April 26th to July 25th. Each week will focus on a specific theme, pairing a classic YA title with a more modern YA title. These two titles will be available to download for free this week only (from 7/19 to 7/25) at the SYNC website. The thirteenth week will start on Thursday, July 19th with Monstrous Beauty . The theme for the thirteenth week is “Open to discoveries.”
Seventeen-year-old Hester feels drawn to Ezra, and as she investigates her family history, she learns why. Digging into resources at the Plymouth Library, she learns of an ancestor who was said to be a mermaid, who gave up her life in the sea to marry a human. Narrator Katherine Kellgren smoothly moves between the 1870s and current time. Her talent with accents is put to good use as she portrays folks of various English backgrounds and helps the listener keep track of each time period. In an interview at the end of the book, both author and narrator discuss the importance of research to their work. The library owns this in ebook format.
The creator of Sherlock Holmes delivers a classic adventure fantasy in this tale of a trip by journalists, scientists, and adventurers to investigate rumors of dinosaurs on a mysterious plateau deep in a mythical South American jungle. Much fun and over-the-top adventure ensue. The author is ably supported by Glen McCready, who delivers a reading very much in the nineteenth-century style. He plays up the characters’ big personalities and celebrates the rather orotund style of the writing, which isn’t as tight as in the Holmes books. Not for modern-fiction-only readers, this book will appeal most to lovers of nineteenth-century literature.