The pair of eAudiobooks offered by AudiobookSYNC Week 5 features young adult characters who have been required to conform to identities chosen for them. Many teens feel this put-upon sense that conflicts with self-identity, although usually they are caught in less extreme circumstances than the characters here. Listening to these books can awaken both empathy for others and insight about the tension between conforming to social pressures and remaining true to one’s own identity.
Freakling is a sci-fi story about 12-year-old Taemon, exiled as a “dud” when he loses his society’s valued telekinetic abilities. Taemon’s efforts and discoveries bring him to develop his own sense of self and purpose. 
Boy is a live play from L.A. Theatre Works’ science-based Relativity Series, based on a real-life event in which one twin boy is given a gender reassignment in infancy—a physician’s decision as a way of handling an injury. This is not a story about transgender identity that is the result of self-awareness; instead, it is an examination of how one young person handles the fact that an inborn sense of self has been altered traumatically by adult family members and healthcare providers who have presumed to force the injured into a false identity.
These two eAudiobooks can lead to discussion as well as individual reflection. Both stories show the significance of trust—in self and in others—required in confronting life in the face of society’s judgment. Building and maintaining one’s own identity is a significant goal. To achieve it, you must move past accepting what you are told to acting, showing, and knowing yourself beyond exterior pressures.
Available for a Limited Time
Remember — grab these titles before they are replaced by a new pairing on 6/1/2017! While the download time is limited, your listening time is not. Once you have downloaded the MP3 files, the eAudiobook is yours to keep.
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