SYNC Audiobooks for Teens returns for a 12th season of free audiobook downloads for individuals ages 13 and up! This year, the SYNC season runs for 14 weeks, from April 29 through August 4, for a total of 28 titles, all available to participants worldwide. SYNC titles will be delivered via OverDrive’s Sora app, compatible with all types of computers, tablets, and smartphones. Once downloaded during each title’s single week of availability, the audiobook remains the participant’s, with no due date.
The SYNC program will only work with Sora, the student reading app from OverDrive. You don’t need to be affiliated with a school to use Sora with the SYNC program. To get started with Sora:
- Register for SYNC 2021.
- Download Sora from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or go to soraapp.com in your browser.
- In Sora, tap "I have a setup code" (at the bottom of the screen)
- Enter this setup code: audiobooksync.
- Tap "Explore" (at the bottom of the screen) to see the week's featured titles.
New SYNC titles will be available each Thursday at midnight EST. You can access the titles for 7 days, until the next Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. To keep each audiobook, you must tap "Borrow" in the app. Once you've borrowed a title, it stays on your Shelf in Sora indefinitely.
If you need to free up space on your device, you can delete the downloaded files in Sora. If you delete the files, the title will stay on your Shelf, and you'll be able to download and access it again. To delete a downloaded audiobook's files, tap the checkmark next to the title on your Shelf, "Stream (when online)," then select "Yes, delete download." Note: If you "Return" an audiobook, it will be completely removed from your account in Sora and you'll lose access to it once its SYNC availability period is over.
This year’s SYNC title collection includes dramas, autobiographies, fantasies, thrillers, romances, and much more. Participants will be offered many #OwnVoices audiobooks, a classic tale from China, an artist’s tour of a career in professional art, some often-requested humor, and collections of short stories. Performance styles include single narration, author narration, full-cast performances, and dual performer deliveries. Some of the audiobooks have a run time under two hours, of particular appeal to brand-new listeners, and others run as long as 12 hours and more.
Summer 2021 SYNC Title Pairings
Week 1, April 29 – May 5: After Crossing the Border
- Come on In: 15 Stories About Immigration and Finding Home by Adi Alsaid [editor]; read by Amielynn Abellera, Jonathan Todd Ross, Katherine Littrell, Leila Buck, Maria Liatis, Sneha Mathan
- Illegal by Francisco X. Stork; read by Roxana Ortega, Christian Barillas
Week 2, May 6 - 12: Confronting Injustice
- They Went Left by Monica Hesse; read by Caitlin Davies
- Trell by Dick Lehr; read by Bahni Turpin
Week 3, May 13 - 19: Rooted in China
- Descendant of the Crane by Joan He; read by Nancy Wu
- Monkey by Wu Ch'êng-ên; translated by Arthur Waley; read by Kenneth Williams
Week 4, May 20 - 26: How to Be Human
- Alive by Scott Sigler; read by Colleen Delaney and a full cast
- What Makes Us by Rafi Mittlefehldt; read by Graham Halstead
Week 5, May 27 - June 2: Making a New Life
- Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud; read by Sheldon Berman, David Cromer, Marge Kotlisky, Naana Potok, Malcolm Rothman, Jensen Wheeler
- Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom; read by Mawi Asgedom
Week 6, June 3 - 9: Off to Paris
- Rook by Sharon Cameron; read by Caroline Feraday
- Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas; read by Jennifer Jill Araya
Week 7, June 10 - 16: Creating Change
- Crescendo by Allen Cheney, Julie Cantrell [contributor]; read by Allen Cheney
- Extinction by Hannie Rayson; read by Seamus Dever, Sarah Drew, Darren Richardson, Joanne Whalley
Week 8, June 17 - 23: Listening to Art
- Poemsia by Lang Leav; read by Saskia Maarleveld
- This is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew; read by Kimberly Drew
Week 9, June 24 - 30: Take Pride in Your True Self
- Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky; read by Agnes Borinsky
- Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith; read by Theo Germaine, Phoebe Strole
Week 10, July 1 - 7: Back Stories
- Dust by Kara Swanson; read by Natasha Soudek
- The Raven's Tale by Cat Winters; read by Michael Crouch, Nicole Wood
Week 11, July 8 - 14: Romance and Relationships
- The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar; read by Priya Ayyar
- Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali; read by Ariana Delawari
Week 12, July 15 - 21: The Chill of the Thriller
- The Ruinous Sweep by Tim Wynne-Jones; read by Tim Wynne-Jones
- The Body Snatcher and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson; read by Roy McMillan
Week 13, July 22 - 28: Gleefully Familiar...Twisted
- Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee; read by Emily Woo Zeller
- Spellsinger 1 by Alan Dean Foster; read by Terence Aselford and a full cast
Week 14, July 29 - August 4: Secrets
- Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan; read by Michael Crouch
- Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout; read by Lauren Fortgang
Sponsored by AudioFile Magazine the SYNC program encourages the development of new listeners during middle- and high-school summer vacation periods. Listening to audiobooks has been demonstrated to increase literacy capacity in highly skilled bookworms as well as those who don’t identify themselves as readers, to provide opportunities to deepen capacity for empathy, and to offer exposure to a wide variety of genres, voices, and expressive styles.