Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

PUBLISHER SUMMARY:

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

REVIEW:

Author Pam Munoz Ryan’s masterfully crafts a tale which is an enchanting combination of historical fiction mixed with folklore and a sprinkle of magic. The majority of the story is set against the backdrop of the 1940's when the fear and anxiety of World War II was on everyone's mind. But the common thread for each of the characters is a special harmonica, mysteriously crafted and marked with an “M” which seems to empower the owner with the strength to overcome the social inequalities and injustices they face. At first, I was frustrated at because the author leaves each of the stories of Friedrich, Mike and Ivy unfinished. A musical analogy would be listening to a song but having the last sentence cut off.  However, each story ties together well in the concluding chapters. All around a wonderful and satisfying story emphasizing the power of music and family in overcoming obstacles. Well done!! 

Full disclosure: Book obtained through the West Springfield Public Library Collection. 

Review: The Girl is Murder

The Girl is Murder

by Kathryn Miller Haines

 

Book Description:

Iris Anderson is only fifteen, but she's quickly mastering the art of deception.

 

It's the Fall of 1942 and Iris's world is rapidly changing. Her Pop is back from the war with a missing leg, limiting his ability to do the physically grueling part of his detective work. Iris is dying to help, especially when she discovers that one of Pop's cases involves a boy at her school. Now, instead of sitting at home watching Deanna Durbin movies, Iris is sneaking out of the house, double crossing her friends, and dancing at the Savoy till all hours of the night. There's certainly never a dull moment in the private eye business.

 

Review:

Love mystery? Love historical fiction?  Then...you should check out this book.

 

Set in the 1940's, this book's atmosphere was exceedingly well done. The clothes, the slang, the political unrest... I felt like I'd dropped straight into the forties and I wanted to dance the night away with the Rainbows! The best part was that even with the slang and the differences in our culture between then and today, Iris still felt like an average teenager. I didn't have that horrible disconnect that you can sometimes get when historical fiction feels too foreign. 

 

Iris was a great character through which to view the forties. She's Jewish, so considered an outsider, and she's just been exiled from the richest section of New York City down to a much lower socially acceptable area because of scandal and economic misfortune... Iris decides she needs to help her Private Investigator father to close his cases because their family desperately needs the money and because she can go places he can't. 

 

Which leads to a new life built on secrets and lies. Soon Iris is double-crossing "friends" at school and misleading her father... how long can she keep that up? The answer...not too long. The real question, though, is will she be able to solve a potential murder before it all blows up in her face??

 

A rollickingly good ride...and I'm looking forward to the sequel, The Girl is Trouble.