Tag Archive | growing up

Secrets and more secrets – audiobook summer continues!

Jun18

A journey across the Big Pond or summer job together with your crush? You can have both with this week’s free audiobooks from AudioSYNC!

After you’ve registered and gotten the Sora app on your phone or tablet, you can easily download either or both titles -free- using the links below.

CD cover of The Bronte Plot, by Katherine Reay. Read by Laura Kirman. Published by Thomas Nelson | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The Bronte Plot (download free here, 18-24 June 2020)

by Katherine Reay. Read by Laura Kirma. Published by Thomas Nelson

Asked by her ex-sweetheart’s grandmother Helen to lead a literary excursion in Great Britain, Lucy leaps at the chance to leave Chicago and the bad choices she’s made at her job.

Helen is confronting ghosts from her past as they travel – perhaps Lucy can absorb some of her wise advice, become as strong as the Bronte sisters, and make amends for her past actions.

CD cover of The Music of What Happens, by Bill Konigsberg. Read by Joel Froomkin & Anthony Rey Perez. Published by Scholastic Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The Music of What Happens (download free here 18-24 June 2020)

by Bill Konigsberg. Read by Joel Froomkin, Anthony Rey Perez. Published by Scholastic Audio

Relaxed jock Max and high-strung Jordan are determined to revive the vintage food truck business for Jordan’s mom to pay her mortgage.

As they work together that sweltering Arizona summer, the guys begin falling for each other – but will their secrets keep them apart?

More than halfway through our AudioSYNC summer of free audiobooks – thank you for sharing, publishers! Which title is your favorite, so far?
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Dare she tell THE STORY THAT CANNOT BE TOLD? by J. Kasper Kramer (book review)

Jun17
book cover of The Story That Cannot Be Told, by J. Kasper Kramer. Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The Leader knows everything,
all must follow his new rules,
everything of the past must be erased!

“History is written by the victors,” goes the saying, but Ileana’s beloved uncle doesn’t believe that’s true and goes missing after a story critical of Romania’s Communist government goes public in 1989.

The teen’s parents whisk her out of the city, to her grandparents’ mountain village, hopefully far away from the secret police who have eyes and ears on every street corner.

In her knapsack is the notebook of stories she’s collected – old ones about the beautiful city before the Leader ruined it, older ones about her namesake princess, new ones from her uncle. Now she can add the stories about her own mother and the villagers as told by Mamaie and Tataie.

Weeks pass without word from her parents, but when strangers settle at the village inn, everyone knows this may be the last harvest festival before the government takes absolutely everything they have.

Can Ileana and her new schoolmates find a way to stop them?
What clues from the tale of Cunning Ileana might help?
Are her parents safe or have they been taken like her uncle?

Like the villagers’ tale of the White Wolf who saves the mountain people, Ileana wants her story to save those she loves… if she can.

When have you taken the truth to those who need it most?
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Book info: The Story That Cannot Be Told / J. Kasper Kramer. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

STAND UP! BE AN UPSTANDER AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE, by Wendy L. Moss (nonfiction book review)

Jun3
book cover of Stand Up! Be an Upstander and Make a Difference, by Wendy L. Moss PhD. Published by Magination Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Unfair treatment,
Bullying at school and online,
Can one person make a difference?

Yes! One voice can add to the chorus asking for big changes or help a new student feel welcome by being an Upstander instead of an uncaring bystander.

Use the quizzes in each chapter to discover what kind of bystander you are – neutral, negative, or positive – and that your reactions will differ from situation to situation.

Become better at being kind to yourself, dealing respectfully with conflict, and working with others to brainstorm ways to make a difference.

Young people do have power to change unfair rules – learn strategies that help decision-makers see your viewpoint.

Kindness and anger are both contagious – educate yourself on ways to spread kindness and disrupt stereotypes that spread negativity.

In these times and in all times coming, you can educate yourself to be an Upstander, to positively help your family, school, community, and world.

Are you up for this?
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Book info: Stand Up! Be an Upstander and Make a Difference / Wendy L. Moss, PhD. Magination Press, 2019. [author bio] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

It calls them all – A SONG BELOW WATER, by Bethany C. Morrow (book review)

Jun2
book cover of A Song Below Water, by Bethany C. Morrow. Published by Tor Teen | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Every Siren is a Black woman,
her magical Call irresistible,
a danger that the majority wants to contain…or silence.

Tavia and Effie share secrets and worries as the Black almost-sisters navigate high school while growing into their individual powers.

To Portland, Effie is ‘the girl from the park’ who survived when sprites turned her playmates into stone statues years ago.

Trying to strangle the siren-voice out of herself at age 11 didn’t work, but coming here from California gave Tavia a chance to start over, away from her grandmother’s revealed Siren legacy.

When Effie moved up the hill from her grandparents to stay with Tavia for school, a gargoyle arrived too, perching on the roof whenever the teens are home.

Tavia stays quiet except in choir, for her siren-voice is too powerful and compelling for everyday people to deny. But when she’s stopped for driving while Black – did the other cop hear her Call to be released?

It’s almost Ren Faire time, where Effie is the mermaid Euphemia, so she practices her underwater dance at the pool, missing her late mom and their shared love of Faire performing more than ever.

Does Effie’s constantly itching skin mean she’s becoming a mer for real?
Is an electronic silencing collar in Tavia’s near future?

They know that attending the community protest of a young Black man’s death at the hands of police could quickly turn dangerous, especially when a celebrity who just revealed she’s a Siren arrives…

Effie’s hair has a mind of its own, Tavia seeks her grandmother’s counsel through water, family secrets begin to unravel.

Happy book birthday to this story of self-discovery and speaking to power! Request A Song Below Water now at your local library or buy from an independent bookstore directly or through bookshop.org for home delivery.

Where can you use your voice for good, right now?
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Book info: A Song Below Water / Bethany C. Morrow. Tor Teen, 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Unwise love and unforgivable secrets to read with your ears! (audiobook reviews)

May28

Forced together by circumstance, forced apart by society, choosing to remember…or forget.

This week’s pair of audiobooks bring us a mother and daughter’s modern then-and-now story and a fantasy enemies-to-lovers (maybe) tale.

Download either or both titles to your phone or tablet using the links below so you can listen whenever you like through the Sora app.

These are available on the AudioSYNC site free through Wednesday evening 3 June 2020. If you miss the free download for any of these featured audiobooks, check your local library or school library.

CD cover of In Search of Us, by Ava Dellaira. Read by Adenrele Ojo. Published by Brilliance Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

In Search of Us (free download 28 May- 3 June 2020)

by Ava Dellaira. Read by Adenrele Ojo. Published by Brilliance Audio.

Mom says her black father died before Angie was born, but new information about him sets the mixed-race teen on a road trip to California, with her ex-boyfriend!

Marilyn’s own love story as a teen in the 90s derailed her career as actress and photographer, but what brought her and baby Angie to New Mexico?

CD cover of Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin. Read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld. Published by HarperAudio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Serpent & Dove (free download 28 May- 3 June 2020)

by Shelby Mahurin . Read by Holter Graham & Saskia Maarleveld. Published by HarperAudio.

Escaping her coven, Louise tries to survive in the city by her wits alone. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” guides Reid as he hunts them down.

When Lou and Reid are caught in a compromising position, they must marry or else!

When is it time to let secrets remain secret?
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Soul calls to soul, WILLA AND THE WHALE, by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown (middle grade book review)

May20
book cover of Willa and the Whale, by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown. Published by Shadow Mountain | recommended on BooksYALove.com

She observes and learns,
listens and writes,
are her own answers in the sea?

Same island town in Washington that Willa left as a nine year old when she and Mom moved to Japan after the divorce, but now her horizons are wider and her grief is deep.

On a whale-watching trip with Dad just a month after Mom’s death, Willa films a gigantic female humpback whale breaching and calls out to her and the whale Meg talks back!

Too much can change in three years – best friend in a different house, too many people in Willa’s old house (step-siblings, half-sibling, too much noise!), no Mom to help her study the creatures of the ocean.

When Willa calls to Meg from the island beach, the whale answers from the distant deeps.

When friend Marc is secretive, Meg gives Willa good advice. When something dreadful happens on the beach, Willa tells Meg about it first.

Missing her Mom – will it ever get easier?
Being herself – will her island classmates ever understand?

In this tale of grief and loss and love, Willa’s journal entries from then and now reveal her deep appreciation of the sea’s inhabitants and her struggle toward living less-alone on the land.

When have you heard a call from afar?
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Book info: Willa and the Whale / Chad Morris and Shelly Brown. Shadow Mountain, 2020. [Chad’s site] [Shelly’s site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

She’ll make him regret it! OF CURSES AND KISSES, by Sandhya Menon (book review)

May12
book cover - Of Curses and Kisses, by Sandhya Menon. Published by Simon Teen | recommended on BooksYALove.com

His family stole it,
her ancestor cursed it,
a ruby’s home controls their destinies…

As eldest, Jaya does what’s best for her royal family – moving from south India to the US her senior year to keep her younger sister safe, agreeing to a politically arranged marriage soon. Their new exclusive school in the Colorado mountains is a fitting place to wait out the scandal that young Lord Emerson embroiled Isha in from afar.

Banished by his father after Grey’s mother died when he was a baby, the young British lord tries not to care – about this exclusive school, about his classmates, about anyone – since the Emerson family is cursed to die out when he reaches 18.

Finding Lord Emerson at St. Rosetta’s, Jaya won’t pass up the chance to break his heart in retaliation for his great-great’s refusal to return the stolen ruby to her family!

First, she must make him fall in love with her. After she gets him to actually talk to her, that is. Her new friends help her, treat her like a real person instead of a political pawn.

How odd that Jaya and Grey can even stand to be in the same place, in light of their families’ generations-long feud.

How quickly time is ticking toward the announcement of Jaya’s engagement, toward Grey’s 18th birthday…toward the end of their beginning together?

Not unusual that Kiran knows people at her school (the world of the ultra-rich is rather small), but is her future fiance spying on Jaya through ice-queen Caterina?

How strange that small rubies keep falling from Jaya’s rose pendant…

This retelling of Beauty and the Beast in two voices echoes across the hidden spaces of their hearts and the vast halls of their school in the first book of the St. Rosetta’s Academy series. From the author of When Dimple Met Rishi (recommended here), From Twinkle With Love (here), and There’s Something About Sweetie (here).

When is it worth fighting against fate?
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Book info: Of Curses and Kisses (St. Rosetta’s Academy, book 1) / Sandhya Menon. Simon Pulse, 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

What gift given this time? FOREVER GLIMMER CREEK, by Stacy Hackney (middle grade book review)

May8
book cover of Forever Glimmer Creek, by Stacy Hackney. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Miracles are unpredictable,
a gift that’s useful or not,
in her town, Miracles are real.

Every year a Glimmer Creek resident gets a trace of magic after surviving a danger, and no one knows why a particular person gets their Miracle.

Rosie knows Miracles aren’t a legend, so the seventh grader is going to interview them all for her Festival movie instead of investigating the Lost Train Treasure, like Henry wants.

But not every Miracle holder wants to talk about their experience, Henry and Cam can’t help with every filming session like they used to, and time to finish her documentary is running short.

Mama and Rosie are the perfect pair – why won’t the Sheriff stay away?
Her long-gone dad is filming nearby – why won’t Mama ever let him visit?
Cam is so busy with the soccer team – what if she doesn’t have time for Rosie anymore?

If Rosie could just have her own Miracle – she would bring home her movie actor father, become a noted film director, keep her two best friends forever…

Read chapter one here for free, thanks to the publisher.

What’s your happily-ever-after movie ending?
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Book info: Forever Glimmer Creek / Stacy Hackney. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

More than meets the eye – read with your ears & AudioSYNC!

May7

Thursday equals a pair of related new titles in the AudioSYNC program, both free for you to download before Wednesday night, 13 May 2020.

For each audioSYNC book you choose, be sure to hit ‘Borrow’ on the Sora app (downloaded on your phone or tablet). Then it will be checked out to you for 35,996 days or 100 years – enough time to listen to all 26 selections of summer 2020!

CD cover of Secret Soldiers: How the US Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis, by Paul B. Janeczko, Read by Ron Butler. Published by Brilliance Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Secret Soldiers: How the US Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis (info here)

by Paul B. Janeczko | Read by Ron Butler | Published by Brilliance Audio

Sound effects, inflatable war machines, pyrotechnics, and camouflage – the U.S. “Ghost Army” made up of actors, set designers, audio specialists, and painters fooled German forces during World War II.

Their 20 missions made the Nazis see and hear non-existent troop maneuvers from the Normandy invasion to crossing the Rhine, ensuring Allied victory.

CD cover of Picture Us in the Light, by Kelly Loy Gilbert, Read by James Chen. Published by Dreamscape | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Picture Us in the Light (info here)

by Kelly Loy Gilbert | Read by James Chen | Published by Dreamscape

A year after his close-knit group of friends ruptures, Danny worries about his future as an artist after high school. When the California teen discovers a box of secrets in Dad’s closet, everything his immigrant family has told him comes into question, too.

How do we camouflage our true intentions from others?
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Summer reading time – 13 weeks of FREE audiobooks…starting now!

May2

Happy May, happy AudioSYNC summertime!

Whatever your weather, it is now officially summer reading season because our free weekly audiobooks are here!

This year, the AudiobookSYNC program uses the Sora app for listening through a dedicated ‘public library’ that hosts one pair of free audiobooks weekly. Read more about the 13 week program here.

For every pair of audiobooks, your time to download either or both titles begins at 12 midnight (EDT) Thursday, running through late night Wednesday. For 2020, listeners worldwide can download all books! All you need to register is an email address.

CD cover of Monday's Not Coming, by Tiffany D. Jackson, Read by Imani Parks. Published by HarperAudio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Monday’s Not Coming (download)

by Tiffany D. Jackson | Read by Imani Parks Published by HarperAudio

How can learning-challenged Claudia start the school year without BFF Monday? Why can’t anyone remember the last time they saw the African American teen? How can a girl just disappear? Claudia wants answers, wants Monday back!

CD cover of The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater, Read by Robin Miles. Published by Recorded Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The 57 Bus (download)

by Dashka Slater | Read by Robin Miles Published by Recorded Books

Just 8 minutes in the same bus, day after day – but enough for differences in class, race, and gender perceptions to lead one teen to set another on fire, literally.

A true account of the horrific action that made international news – what punishment could fit this dreadful crime? How did the race of each person affect the daily bus ride, the attack, the trial?

Remember to download either or both mysterious titles before Wednesday night, May 6th. As long as they’re on your Sora app shelf, they’re yours to enjoy!

What mysteries – fictional or factual – do you recommend?
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