This summer, SYNC will be providing two free teen audiobooks each week from April 25th to July 31st. Each week will focus on a specific theme, pairing complete downloads of two high interest titles for teens 13+. The fourth week started 5/16 with Spill . These two titles will be available to download for free this week only (from 5/16 to 5/23) at the SYNC website. The theme for this week is “in times of disaster: Natural or man-made disasters can change what “home” means forever.”
Listeners follow a documentary-style play as the tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill unfolds. On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s flagship drilling rig exploded, collapsed, and spread millions of gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. Earlier, tension over safety, the limits of technology, and company politics had threatened to erupt among the workers when the BP brass insisted on bending regulations to speed production. Told through dramatized interviews, reminiscences, and court proceedings, this program focuses on the whirlwind of emotions faced by the rig workers and their families in the wake of the tragedy that took 11 lives and cost billions of dollars to clean up. The play acts as a cautionary tale while also pointing out that new oil drilling resumed in the gulf less than six months later.
From award-winning author McCall Hoyle comes a new young adult novel, Meet the Sky, a story of love, letting go, and the unstoppable power of nature. It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophie’s dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophie’s older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all. With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the future—keep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she can’t control. After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person she’d have chosen—the reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finn’s become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm. The library owns this in book format, eAudiobook format, and eBook format.