YALSA names 2014 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

For Immediate Release
Mon, 02/03/2014

Contact:

Jaclyn Finneke

Communications Manager

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

jfinneke@ala.org

PHILADELPHIA The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2014 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults list. The list for those ages 12-18 is drawn from the previous two years of spoken-word releases and presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The full list can be viewed at http://www.ala.org/yalsa/amazing-audiobooks.

The 2014 Amazing Audiobooks list, consisting of 27 fiction titles and two nonfiction, features recordings covering a wide range of interests for young adults from memoir to psychological horror to parody.

In addition to the full list, the committee chose the following recordings as its top 10:

  • "Zombie Baseball Beatdown" by Paolo Bacigalupi, read by Sunil Malhotra. Listening Library, 2013.
     
  • "Etiquette & Espionage" by Gail Carriger, read by Moira Quirk. Hachette Audio, 2013.
     
  •  "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" by Ian Doescher, read by a full cast. Listening Library, 2013.  
     
  •  "If You Could Be Mine" by Sara Farizan, read by Negin Farsad. High Bridge Audio, 2013.
     
  •  "Scowler" by Daniel Kraus, read by Kirby Heyborne.  Listening Library, 2013.
     
  •  "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson, read by Danny Burstein. Simon and Schuster Audio, 2013.
     
  •  "Viva Jacquelina!: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away (A Bloody Jack Adventure)" by L.A. Meyer, read by Katherine Kellgren.  Listen and Live Audio, 2013.
     
  •  "Crap Kingdom" by D.C. Pierson, read by D.C. Pierson. Blackstone, 2013.
     
  •  "Dodger" by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs. Dreamscape Audio, 2012.
     
  •  "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra. Listening Library, 2013.·

"We were thrilled with the variety of wonderful productions this year.” said Chair Dawn Rutherford. "The narrators were such total wizards, they evoked everything from hysterical laughter to nausea, and we believe followers of the list will be similarly moved."

Members of the 2014 Amazing Audiobooks Committee are: Chair Dawn Rutherford, Sno-Isle Libraries, Tulalip, Wash.;  Mary Burkey, Olentangy Local Schools,Powell, Ohio;  Randee Jean Bybee, Upland Public Library, Upland, Calif.; Emily F. Calkins, Seattle; Kim Christofferson, Sweet Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; Linda L. Plevak, Northeast Lakeview College, Universal City, Texas;  Coleen Seisser, Mount Prospect Public Library, Mount Prospect, Ill.; Karilyn L. Steward, Calabasas Library, Calabasas, Calif.; Dr. Sylvia M. Vardell, Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas.

YALSA’s portfolio of book and media awards helps strengthen library services for and with teens by identifying quality, age appropriate resources for librarians and library workers to share with the teens in their communities.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens.  For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail, yalsa@ala.org.