Night Music

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Ruby Chertok comes from a well connected white family and her father holds a faculty position at the prestigious Amberley School of Music. Not only that, he’s in charge of the upcoming season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Having played and studies piano her entire life, it is expected that she will have a career as a classical pianist. She is confident that she’ll be accepted into Amberly, but she miserably fails her audition. How does she deal with the disappointment of her parents? What does she do next?

Enter Oscar Bell, a young black musical genius protégé who is to spend the summer studying with Ruby’s father. He’s charming, he is a YouTube sensation, and Ruby is smitten with him. Ruby moves in a privileged, mostly white circle. Oscar is from Maryland and is from a very different background. Oscar worries that people will assume he is dating Ruby to make inroads with her father.

Night Music is not just a romance. It delves into the theme of privilege and racial inequality in the classic music world, things most readers would otherwise be unaware of. The book has many musical elements that would resonate with those who play or enjoy classical music.

Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain

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Tod Olson, author of the narrative non-fiction series LOST, tells the story of three separate, but connected, expeditions to summit K2, the second tallest mountain in the world and the most dangerous to climb. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 tells the story of the first expedition in 1938 led by Charlie Houston, an American medical student. This attempt was primarily intended as a scouting mission to find a route to the summit. They were laying the groundwork for the second expedition to be led by acclaimed German American climber Fritz Wiessner, who planned to be the first man to summit K2. Part 2 takes place in 1939 and documents Wiessner’s ill-fated expedition up the mountain with Wiessner’s team losing three Sherpa’s and one of its crewmembers, Dudley Wolfe, and missing conquering the summit by a mere 700 feet.  Part 3 takes place in 1953 when Charlie Houston returns to K2 with a new crew of disciplined hand-picked men determined to summit.

The stories are gripping with terrifying accounts of falls, injuries including snow blindness, frostbite and amputations, illnesses including altitude sickness and blood clots, and deaths. The author includes primary documents including photographs, paintings and drawing. There is also a Sources section, including author interviews, videos, books, magazine and newspaper articles, and archival sources such as expedition diaries. Source notes are cited, as well as photo credits.

Written at a reading level for middle grade readers, this book is accessible to middle school and high school students, and is a very interesting read even for adults.

Today Tonight Tomorrow

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Today, she hates him.

It is the end of high school for Rowan, she has spent 4 years hating, and competing to be the best, against Neil. It all started with an essay contest that he won freshman year, and she hasn’t forgotten that loss. They have been rivals this whole time, forcing each other to do and be better for their entire high school career. Their rivalry has often forced them to work together, which both act like they hate every minute of. And now, it all comes down to who is named valedictorian.

After the valedictorian is named and before graduation day, the senior class has one last exciting thing to look forward to. HOWL, a city wide scavenger hunt in downtown Seattle organized by the Junior Class Officers, with a big cash prize to the winner. Rowan realizes this cash prize could help with college next year and it could be the one last thing to beat Neil at.

The Kingdom of Back

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The Kingdom of Back is a historical retelling of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s real-life older sister, Nannerl Mozart, with heavy threads of fantasy. The story follows the young lives of the siblings growing up in a family whose future depends on the recognition of their family talent by the nobility.

Nannerl is at first the gem of the musical Mozart family until the genius other brother seeps out to steal the focus. It seems her talent cannot compete with his innate gift. As she feels more diminished, she turns to the fantasy world they had created. The prince of the Kingdom of Back becomes her focus as she drifts between the realness of the two worlds trying to find her place.

The story unveils itself easily as it follows Nannerl through to adulthood. The symbols and analogies presented in the Kingdom of Back creatively convey the emotion and thought processes of a young adult girl trying to find her way in a world with a domineering father and a child prodigy younger brother. A shift from her adventure-focused fantasy writing, Lu presents the story of a person coming to grips with her future by finding a way to deal with it.

White Rose

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This novel, written in verse, is based on the incredible story of Sophie Scholl, a young German college student who challenged the Nazi regime during World War II as part of The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group. Sophie, her brother, and soldiers in his regiment, are disillusioned by Nazi propaganda and together they formed the White Rose,a group that conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign for a few years in the 1940s. Sophie and her brother were arrested in 1943 for treason and interrogated for information about their collaborators.

The books is organized in sections that move backward and forward in time. We hear Sophie’s thoughts, those of her boyfriend, Fritz, who served in the German army, and those of the Gestapo interrogator. This is a tragic but powerful story which is beautifully told. It is appropriate for middle school and high school students, and adults interested in history and novel in verse will also appreciate White Rose.

The center of the universe

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Grace Carter is a regular teenaged girl who likes astronomy and want to become an astrophysicist; just kind of a geeky high schooler. But her mother is someone entirely different. GC Carter is a celebrity news anchor, blond, thin, with gorgeous clothes and thousands of fans. Grace and her mother are very different. One day GG disappears with no warning. News crews flock to their house and reporters and news commentators speculate about what might have happened. Meanwhile Grace and her family wait for answers from the authorities. Trying to hold her life together, Grace continues to go to school where she grows closer to a really sweet boy named Mylo, who is facing grief of his own.

As the plot unfolds, Grace learns from her father and her grandmother some secrets from her mother’s long-lost past, and the more Grace learns, the more she wonders if she ever really knew her mother.

The mother-daughter dynamics, the friendships from school, and the geeky STEM-loving character of Grace make this an intriguing book. And as a bonus, in the story, Grace interviews her hero, Elizabeth Tasker, who is a real life famous astrophysicist and science communicator. See https://www.elizabethtasker.com/

Goodbye Perfect

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A slice of life story of a British teenaged girl, Eden, and her best friend, Bonnie. Right before their final exams, Bonnie runs away with their music teacher. This is an unexpected shock to Eden, and even though she knows where Bonnie is, her loyalty to her best friends keeps her strong through questioning by the police, the school, and Bonnie’s family.

This is a serious story. We learn how pressured a 15 year old can be when subjected to pressure from her overbearing parents to be perfect with her behavior, scores, exams, and grades. As the plot unfolds, Eden begins to understand how Bonnie was groomed by Mr. Cohn, the music teacher. And, that this is a serious situation and that Bonnie needs to get away from Mr. Cohn.

Here is a significant quote: “I don’t think you can ever really start over. Because if you’re trying to do that, you’re basically trying to run away from yourself. And you can’t. You’re stuck with you, forever. Wherever you go.”

 I recommend this book to those who enjoy “slice of life” realism with mature topics.

The Sky Blues

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What a fun book, I read it in one day! This book, set in Michigan, is a story about an openly gay high school student and his best friends. Sky deals with an awful high school bully, a racist and homophobic school wide e-mail scandal, the stress of having a secret huge crush, and upcoming PROM. During the stress of finishing Senior year, he realizes that friends are the family you get to choose. Sky learns you should fight for those friendships, because through it all, they are the ones who have your back when you need it most.

The Great Unknowable End

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This story is set is the 70’s in a town called Slater, Kansas and involves a girl and a boy whose lives could not be more different. Stella wants to be a space engineer but once her mother dies, and her brother runs off to live in Red Sun, the nearby hippie compound, she feels compelled to stay to help her father and sister. Galliard grew up in Red Sun but leaves it after losing the Artist in Residence position that he feels he deserved. Stella is dealing with her disappointment and grief; Galliard is dealing with living in “Outside” in the mainstream society where his Tourette syndrome isn’t accepted the same way as it was in the compound.

And then strange things begin to happen in Slater, from red rain to eyeless snakes, and the town puts the blame on the Red Sun. The Red Sun returns blame to the Outside. Meanwhile, Stella and Galliard meet and strike up an unlikely friendship.

The book is filled with references to ’70’s music and culture, and reminds me somewhat of The Twilight Zone. It was an enjoyable book, although the ending is somewhat anti-climatic.