Articles by Francisca Goldsmith

SYNC’s 14th season wrapped up with our traditional survey to learn what worked best for teens among the free audiobooks they received during the summer. This year, 28...

For the final week of the 2023 SYNC season, Recorded Books and Tantor Media have provided truly essential listening experiences. Each of us lives in not just a single community,...

Even when we need to rely on others for safety or comfort, we like to maintain a sense of personal freedom and choice. This penultimate week of the 2023 SYNC season, we are...

During this twelfth week of the SYNC season, with thanks to HighBridge Audio and HarperAudio, we get to hear of legendary transformations. Humans have always had a soft spot in...

Listening Library supplies SYNC participants with a pair of historical fiction novels this week. While these two audiobooks depict the lives of fictional characters, their...

This week SYNC drops in on the lives of inventive people—people you might not be familiar with and inventions you might not have thought much about. Thanks to L.A. Theatre...

Thanks to Scholastic Audiobooks and Brilliance we can celebrate Pride Week on SYNC with free audiobooks that address the truly vast spectrum of the rainbow. In 2023, Pride...

We start the second half of the 2023 SYNC season this week! Wow, time can seem to fly! On the other hand, time can warp into painful slow motion when both soldiers and civilians...

SYNC takes us into a hurricane and a monster-infested sea this...

This week’s free audiobooks for teens from SYNC explore what can happen when life’s circumstances require us to face the future with little support but what the past...

This week, adventure and investigation come to SYNC listeners courtesy of tales told by a certain type of disreputable character: We are about to hear from thieves, courtesy of...

SYNC dips into fantasy this fourth week of the season, thanks to THE KEEPER OF NIGHT, from Dreamscape, and OUT OF THE BLUE, from Harper Audio. In both titles, elements of our...

SYNC 2023’s third week offers participants a pair of nonfiction audiobooks that shares unexpected features. Both THE SCHOOL THAT ESCAPED THE NAZIS: the True Story of the...

During Week 2 of the 2023 SYNC season of free audiobooks, teens and other participants can settle in to hear imaginative contemporary reworkings of classic fiction. Move THE...

SYNC, AudioFile's annual program bringing free audiobooks for teens, launches for the 2023 season! Thanks to Candlewick on Brilliance and to L.A. Theatre Works, this...

Just ahead of the new SYNC season delivering free audiobooks to teens around the world, OverDrive and AudioFile co-hosted a webinar filled with tips about the Sora app and ideas...

Audiobook listening brings both literary and performance experiences to teen listeners. The lineup of free titles in this year’s SYNC program includes 11 award-winners of...

With the SYNC season starting next month, now is a good time to prepare so you are able to collect the free audiobooks you want to add to your personal Sora shelf. While each of...

AudioFile created the SYNC program as an enhancement for teen learning experiences, including and reaching beyond literacy support. Each year the SYNC season’s list of...

In 2023, SYNC, our seasonal event of free audiobooks for teens, will return in April for the 14th year in a row. Thanks to this year’s generous support by publishers,...

At the tail of each SYNC season we reach out to participants to find out what listeners liked, how SYNC might have changed their audiobook listening, and how they shared...

We’ve come a long way—this week making it 16 weeks and 32 free audiobooks—since April. Thanks to Scholastic and to Naxos AudioBooks, this 16th week brings...

Our penultimate week of this SYNC season brings a pair of very different kids with character, thanks to free audiobooks from Zonderkidz and Tantor. There are plenty of contrasts...

In week 14, SYNC listeners can download to keep a historical novel with authentic roots and a nonfiction account from a witness to international history. Thank you to Recorded...

The name of the game in SYNC’s 13th week is giving outsider characters new powers through subtle twists of fantasy. Thanks to HarperAudio and Dreamscape, your free...

The epic is a particular kind of narrative, often presented in verse, featuring the adventures of and challenges faced by historical figures in legend or cultural history. Week...

Whether you are a big fan of reading mysteries in print or have yet to discover the attraction of this genre, get wrapped up in listening to a pair of free audiobook detection...

Week 10 of this year’s SYNC season comes to participants courtesy of Listening Library. MISSISSIPPI TRIAL, 1955 and THIS IS MY AMERICA both offer realistic fiction...

Thanks to Hachette Audio and Scholastic Audiobooks, Week 9 of this SYNC season features a pair of novels with LGBTQI+ characters written and performed with...

In the Northern Hemisphere, summer is heating up, especially in the American South. In response to that, SYNC brings listeners a pair of chilling tales this week. Thank you,...

In Week 7, SYNC participants are off to two stage performances, so grab your snacks for intermission and find a comfy seat. Thank you, L.A. Theatre Works and GraphicAudio, for...

Thanks to Penguin Random House Audiobooks, the sixth week of this year’s SYNC collection of free audiobooks takes us backstage at two dramatic turning points in the...

During Week 5 of SYNC’s 13th season of free audiobooks, participants have the opportunity to meet a pair of real people. Thank you, Oasis Audio and Hachette Audio, for...

In Week 4 of this SYNC season, listeners can take a pair of excursions into history that give context to political realities. Thank you, Post Hypnotic Press and L.A. Theatre...

Week 3’s free audiobooks offer several kinds of literary and performance experiences. SYNC participants can select one or two teen novels this week, both of which are...

During Week 2 of SYNC, thanks to Brilliance Publishing and ECW Press, audiobook listeners from around the world can experience both mythology and realism from two different...

SYNC Audiobooks for Teens opens our 13th season with a pair of free audiobooks featuring exciting short stories. During Week 1 of this year’s program, use your Sora app,...

Whether you find audiobook listening a great way to consume books while you do chores, exercise, commute, or craft, make this the year SYNC helps you to become an active...

While we regularly note that the SYNC program’s opportunities for teens to access summertime listening—and personal collection building—involves AudioFile...

Among the 32 free audiobooks you can collect during this year’s SYNC season, make time to listen to the five novels that offer well written, expertly performed stories...

Two favorite fiction genres are coming to SYNC in a whole shelf of free audiobooks for 2022. Lovers of mystery, thriller, and suspense and those who revel in fantasy, time...

With just over two months before the opening of the 13th SYNC season, consider this year’s collection for its multiple possibilities for discussion groups or...

Now entering its 13th season (starting April 28), SYNC attracts new participants annually. Anyone new to SYNC understandably might have some practical questions. What is this...

Mystery, history, humor, sports, romance! Full-cast performances of graphic novels! Nonfiction and fictionalized explorations of current events! Stage dramas, works in...

Twenty-eight free audiobooks later, we asked you to tell us how the annual SYNC program went for you during 2021. Before launching into a report on our final report, we want to...

While we certainly hope you haven’t kept SYNC a secret from friends, colleagues, students, and family, that is exactly the theme of our final week of this season’s...

We come to that part of the summer when listeners (and everyone else) want to lighten up, kick off shoes, and just relax. We’re happy to be able to accommodate that...

As we emerge from more than a year of interacting less with others and renew our awareness of how important different kinds of relationships are in each of our lives, Weeks 11...

Across the ninth and tenth weeks of the 2021 SYNC program of free audiobooks for teens, you’ll have opportunities to meet people remaking their own lives to better fit...

Making changes in your own life can be exciting, unnerving, and surprising in how those changes can affect others. Making any change first requires us to make a decision, and...

Our next four free audiobooks, arriving in sets of two across two weeks, explore different forms of leaving home, making new homes, and creating identity within new cultures....

May brings definite signs of seasonal changes: In the Northern hemisphere, spring bursts and in the Southern, autumn is in the air. In many places, school years are winding...

Our twelfth season of free audiobooks for teens officially arrives, so dial up your Sora app and download (“borrow,” in the app’s parlance) your first pair of...

Are you a fan—and a promoter—of reading challenges, time record-keeping around personal media consumption (books, audiobooks, movies), and other such gamified...

SYNC Audiobooks for Teens returns for a 12th season of free audiobook downloads to keep for individuals ages 13 and up! AudioFile Magazine has hosted this program all these...

At the close of each SYNC season, we ask participants to complete an evaluation of their listening experiences during the previous weeks. We collect thousands of comments, as...