WHS Rebel Readers

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Week 5: Download "A Corner of White" and "Dracula"

Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you.
Week 5: June 4 - June 10
This week's free Audiobooks:

A Corner of White
by Jaclyn Moriarty

Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life, under mysterious circumstances, and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world). Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead (in the Kingdom of Cello). As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds -- through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap.

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Dracula
by Bram Stoker

For a century Bram Stoker’s Dracula has reigned supreme as the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing. We have all grown up under the shadow of the elegant Count, at once an attractive and brutal creature of the night. In 1897 Bram Stoker wrote a story expressing the most persistent nightmare of the human condition.
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Available for a Limited Time: Remember — download these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 6/11/2015! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to listen to at your leisure.

Downloading Tips: Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you. The app is available for every major desktop and mobile platform, including Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Kindle, NOOK, Windows 8 PC and tablet, Blackberry and Windows Phone.

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for young adults. Starting again May 7th 2015, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week -- a current young adult title along with a thematically paired classic or required summer reading title. Sign up for email or text alerts and be first to know when new titles are available to download at www.audiobooksync.com.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Week 4: Download "The Ring and the Crown" and "Sea Hearts"

Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you.
Week 4: May 28 - June 3
This week's free Audiobooks:

The Ring and the Crown
by Melissa De La Cruz

One will rule, and one will serve.... Princess Marie-Elizabeth, heir to the Lily Throne, and Morgan Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second. The princess must marry and produce an heir. When Marie is promised to the heir to the Prussian throne, she turns to Morgan, desperate for help. The best friends form a perilous plan: Morgan, a powerful magician herself, will take on Marie's face, allowing the princess to escape with the boy she loves and live the quiet life she's always wanted. And Morgan will get what she's always dreamed of-the chance to rule. But the hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor's court: trust no one.

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Sea Hearts
by Margo Lanagan

On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella discovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the people of Rollrock ‒ the men, the women, the children ‒ once Misskaella sets her heart on doing such a thing? Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love.
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Available for a Limited Time: Remember — download these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 6/4/2015! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to listen to at your leisure.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Week 3: Download "X: A Novel" and "Here in Harlem" as free audiobooks

Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you.
Week 2: May 14-May 20
This week's free Audiobooks:

X: A Novel
by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon

I am Malcolm.
I am my father's son.
But to be my father's son
means that
they will always come for me.
They will always come for
me,
and I will always succumb.
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Here in Harlem
by Walter Dean Myers

Fifty-four poems, all in different voices but written in one hand. They make a joyful noise as the author honors the people -- the nurses, students, soldiers, and ministers -- of his beloved neighborhood of Harlem.
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Available for a Limited Time: Remember — download these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 05/28/2015! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to listen to at your leisure.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Week 2: Download "Dodger" and "Great Expectations" as free audiobooks

Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you.
Week 2: May 14-May 20
This week's free Audiobooks:

Dodger
by Terry Pratchett
A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's . . . Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl—not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world.
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Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Narrated in the first person, Great Expectations tells the story of Philip Pirrip (known as Pip) from his disadvantaged start as an orphan in the Kent marshes to the improvement in his position following an anonymous allowance. Pip moves to London where, only after many trials, does he learn humility and the value of loyalty. Key Dickens characters abound – the convict Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham and the pompous Pumblechook. Great Expectations was first published as a complete novel in October 1861 shortly after its serialisation in All The Year Round. Like David Copperfield, it drew on his early life, especially the trials of a boy who, about to enter his teen years, find himself challenged by tough life experiences. Among the many remarkable scenes is the famous meeting with Miss Havisham, surrounded by the mementos of her wedding day many years before. It remains one of Dickens' most popular novels.
Listen to a clip:

Available for a Limited Time: Remember — download these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 05/21/2015! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to listen to at your leisure.

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for young adults. Starting again May 7th 2015, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week - a current young adult title along with a thematically paired classic or required summer reading title. Sign up for email or text alerts and be first to know when new titles are available to download at www.audiobooksync.com.

Friday, May 8, 2015

2 Free Audiobooks Each Week All Summer Long!

Download the OverDrive app to deliver SYNC summer audiobooks to you.
Week 1: May 7-May 13
This week's free Audiobooks:

Beautiful Creatures
by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Ethan Wate is haunted by dreams of a girl he's never met. When Lena Duchannes moves into his small southern town of Gatlin County, Ethan is inexplicable drawn to her. And he is determined to uncover the strange connection between them, even if it means uncovering the one secret that could change everything.
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Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century. As the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. The second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
Listen to a clip:

Available for a Limited Time: Remember — download these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 05/14/2015! While the title availability is time-limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the audiobook is yours to listen to at your leisure.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Red Queen Book Review

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Synopsis: Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

Who may enjoy this book? Readers who enjoy dystopian future, action/adventure novels with government resistance and good battles evil.

What did Mrs. O'Malley think? Fast-paced and action-packed. I thought the book was a mix of Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins) with downtrodden commoners who want to overthrow the entitled government and The Other Boleyn Girl (by Philippa Gregory) with ambitious characters scheming for control of the royal court with a bit of X-Men supernatural powers thrown in for fun. Loads of betrayal will keep the reader guessing how the story will end.

Mrs. O'Malley's Favorite Quote from book: "I used to think Silvers were untouchable gods who were never threatened, never scared. Now I know the opposite is true. They've spent so long at the top, protected and isolated, that they've forgotten they can fall. Their strength has become their weakness."

Monday, March 30, 2015

How to Be a Google Power User

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