The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is presented to the producer of the best audiobook produced for youth available in English in the United States. The award is jointly given and administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), divisions of ALA, and is sponsored by Booklist.

2011 Winner

THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY
written by Adam Rex
narrated by Bahni Turpin
Listening Library
ISBN: 9780786849017
Ages 8-up
April 2010

When 12-year-old Gratuity (Tip) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on The True Meaning of Smekday for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens called Boov abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it Smekland (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?

In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.

2011 Honors

ALCHEMY AND MEGGY SWANN
written by Karen Kusman
narrated by Katherine Kellgren
Listening Library
ISBN: 9780547231846
Ages 10-14
April 2010

Meggy's mother was glad to be rid of her; her father, who sent for her, doesn't want her after all. Meggy is appalled by London,dirty and noisy, full of rogues and thieves, and difficult to get around in --- not that getting around is ever easy for someone who walks with the help of two sticks.

Just as her alchemist father pursues his Great Work of transforming base metal into gold, Meggy finds herself pursuing her own transformation. Earthy and colorful, Elizabethan London has its dark side, but it also has gifts in store for Meggy Swann.

THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO: Chaos Walking, Book One
written by Patrick Ness
narrated by Nick Podehl
Candlewick on Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 9781441889010
Ages 14-up
September 2010

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee --- whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not --- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden --- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

REVOLUTION
written by Jennifer Donnelly
narrated by Emily Janice Card and Emma Bering
Listening Library
ISBN: 9780307746214
Ages 14-up
October 2010

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want --- and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages --- until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON
written by John Green and David Levithan
narrated by MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl
Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 9780525421580
Ages 14-up
April 2010

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens --- both named Will Grayson --- are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.