Random House Releases "Community Sourced" Wizard of Oz Audiobook

More than 300 volunteer narrators contributed to this recording of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, now available for download at http://www.firstbook.org/wizard. All proceeds from the download will benefit First Book, a leading children's literacy organization.

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 26, 2010

During this June's American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., Random House Audio, in partnership with OverDrive, Inc. and First Book, recorded a "community sourced" audiobook of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In a recording studio set up inside OverDrive's Digital Bookmobile, 301 amateur narrators voiced Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow one paragraph at a time.

The recording features an introduction/author's note read by 2010 Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead (author of When You Reach Me), as well as readings by Dennis Lehane, Ken Burns, and Cory Doctorow, among other award winning children's, young adult and adult authors, librarians attending the conference, DC locals and visitors.

Random House partnered with OverDrive (the leading provider of downloadable media to libraries) and First Book (an organization that provides books to underprivileged children, families and schools) to help spread the word about digital audiobooks. The finished recording will be available on http://www.firstbook.org/wizard with all proceeds benefiting First Book.

Random House Audio will be donating 5,000 children's audiobooks to First Book as part of the project.

About Random House Audio
The Random House Audio Publishing Group is the preeminent audio publisher working in the industry today, publishing more than 300 titles a year from bestselling authors like Dan Brown, John Grisham, Stieg Larsson, Sue Grafton, Sophie Kinsella, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini. For more, please visit http://www.randomhouseaudio.com.

About OverDrive, Inc. and the Digital Bookmobile
OverDrive is a leading full-service digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video. They deliver secure management, DRM protection, and download fulfillment services for thousands of publishers, libraries, schools, retailers, and aggregators serving millions of end users. The Digital Bookmobile is a high-tech 18-wheeler touring North America on behalf of public libraries. This 74-foot community outreach vehicle has traveled 52,000 miles to more than 270 events to raise awareness about digital book downloads from the library. http://www.overdrive.com http://www.digitalbookmobile.com

About First Book
First Book is an award-winning nonprofit organization that has provided more than 70 million new books to children from low-income families. To support First Book's mission to provide new books to children in need, please go to http://www.firstbook.org and click "Get Involved." Any eligible program or school nationwide serving children from low-income families can gain access to free books for the children they serve and all of First Book's resources by registering with First Book at http://firstbook.org/register.

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