What a Song Can Do: 12 Riffs on the Power of Music

Features

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 200 pages
• Published by: Laurel Leaf January 10, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0440238161
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0440238164
• Book Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 2.4 ounces

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up–Armstrong offers a dozen perspectives on music's life-altering possibilities in this short-story collection. Ron Koertge's "Variations on a Theme" cleverly gives voice to what motivates various students to join a school band and how that decision affects their lives. A gay teen shares his inner struggle to accept his own sexuality in David Levithan's sensitive "What a Song Can Do." The pain of being forced into the role of child prodigy in one musical form until one's own true voice can be heard underlies Jude Mandell's verse selection. Music's connection to life is seen from myriad angles without overpowering the stories, which all have interesting plots and well-developed characters. Brief biographical sketches of the authors are appended and include a description of the importance of music in their lives. This collection will certainly speak to many teens on a very personal level and will open the eyes and the ears of its readers.–Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-10. "Music is like the air: invisible and indispensable," writes Armstrong in her introduction to this music-themed anthology. Many YAs, who inhale MP3 tracks like oxygen itself, would passionately agree. Armstrong has gathered a diverse chorus of voices that speaks from many perspectives: players in a school band in Ron Koertge's "Variations on a Theme;" a gay singer-songwriter in David Levithan's title story; several committed violinists and pianists; and, in the collection's most unusual entry, a young lady whose rare condition, called synesthesia, causes her to see music as well as hear it. The overall package may connect only intermittently to any one reader's personal music preferences; only 3 of the 12 stories deal with genres likely to tug at the contemporary YA soul. However, where the stories address universal issues facing teens, such as anxieties about measuring up to peers, conflicts with parents, and the difficulty of finding one's voice, they show the power of both words and music to express the turbulent emotions of growing up. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.