April 15, 2021
The musical and natural worlds help a tween understand her family and her personal dynamics. Twelve-year-old Madrigal begins her story in November in a diminuendo mood. Maddie is studying the oboe, the instrument that voices the Duck in Peter and the Wolf, and she is dedicated to improving her technique so she can perform the solo in her school's winter concert. Her world changes when her older brother, Strum, a college student deeply concerned about the environment, disappears. Maddie compulsively counts objects and believes that even numbers are the best. She is a gifted math student who appreciates order and regularity, eating the same precisely prepared sandwich for lunch every day. January is a month of staccato as Maddie thinks of herself as a fraction, divided from the brother who makes her whole; reflecting his favorite color, she plays Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. She regards February as a month of crescendo when, as a member of the environmental club at school, she visits a blue morpho butterfly exhibit that gives her an idea as to where Strum has gone. The combination of free verse and first-person narrative convey Maddie's thoughts as she learns to appreciate that both music and family follow strong emotional currents, not just the precision of a metronome. The family defaults to White. An insightful exploration of a girl's inner tickings. (Verse novel. 10-12)
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May 1, 2021
Gr 4-7-Musical and poetic, this is a brave, rich debut novel about mental health and climate change. Maddie, short for Madrigal (like everyone in her family, she has a musical name) likes sameness. Whenever Maddie is stressed, she counts things and hopes they come out to an even number; this calms her. There's a lot to be worried about these days-the quality of her oboe playing, her dad's strictness, her sister Aria's increasing distance, and her older brother Strum's sudden disappearance from college-and lots of her counting comes to odd numbers. There's a dissonance in this musical family, and no one can figure out where Strum has gone or why. Maman, who is French, flies to Colorado to search for him; Daddy follows and leaves Maddie home with Aria, who is even more determined to break the rules now that their parents are gone. Knowing Strum's increasing concern with ecology and conservation, Maddie joins Eco Club with her best friend, Emma, and lands a solo in the upcoming school concert; she experiences common middle school concerns like fitting in while navigating intense family struggles at home. The book is written in verse, and the plot is broken into four narrative segments and utilizes musical terminology like diminuendo in the beginning and crescendo at the end. The imagery of blue morpho butterflies swirling with the conflict and connection in Maddie's life during her oboe solo is particularly beautiful. VERDICT Libraries need more titles featuring young people who care about climate change and live with undiagnosed mental illness, and this fresh novel in verse fits the bill.-Jamie Winchell, Percy Julian M.S., IL
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