Echo is a beautiful story that really consists of 4 different stories. But these 4 stories are connected in an incredible way. Each little story is filled with doubt and fear and a complex, strong spirit, and each story is filled with music. But in the end, they culminate into a gorgeous composition that will echo on after you've finished reading.
We start with Otto, a boy playing hide and seek with his friends. To impress a girl he likes, he decides to hide in the woods so he'll be the last one found. As he waits, he pulls out a book he recently bought from gypsies, but he's amazed to find his name on the title. The story is about 3 princesses who were given to a witch and were cursed. Otto, who gets lost in the woods, happens across these 3 princesses, and they ask for his help. They fill a simple harmonica with their song and tell Otto to give it to others. Once the harmonica, and the song it produces, helps 3 people, the princesses will break their curse and be free. Otto leaves and finds his way home. When he tells everyone what happened, they don't believe him and think him crazy. He grows up to marry the girl he fancied and live a happy life.
The story then jumps to a new character in a new time. We are now 50 years into the future during World War II and we meet Friedrich from Germany. Friedrich has a birth defect, and at a young age, started working in the harmonica factory in town with his father and uncle. He finds a beautiful harmonica that sounds more amazing than any harmonica he's every played before so he takes it. Friedrich is obsessed with music and is often found conducting imaginary orchestras. Most people find him strange. Life continues to get harder as the War encroaches into their town, and Friedrich's father is not on the right side. Friedrich's father is taken away, and Friedrich races to save him. Just when things are at the worst, this story pauses.
We then move to 1935 and Philadelphia, PA, to a 14 year old named Mike. Mike and his younger brother Frankie are orphans waiting to be adopted. Mike is a gifted musician at the piano. When he finds a harmonica (the same harmonica that Friedrich had in Germany), he puts together a plan to save his brother and he from having nothing and no one. However, they are taken as foster kids to a rich young woman's house, a woman who is dealing with demons of her own. Slowly, music and kindness help, but Mike is afraid they will be separated. He plans to escape with Frankie, but things don't go as planned. Just when things are at their worst, the story pauses.
In the last story, we meet Ivy in 1942 in Southern California. She is a Mexican immigrant who has moved to a new place for her father's work. There are definitely divisions of race, and there are even discussions about the Japanese people in the area who have been taken to camps. In a neighboring house that belonged to a Japanese couple, Ivy finds a room hidden away that officials are looking for. Does she tell? And what's wrong with a room filled with musical instruments? In the meantime, she starts her new school and gets to use a harmonica (guess who else had this harmonica). She is beyond talented and also starts to play the flute. Life gets tense, and again, just when things are at their worst, the story pauses.
In the fourth section of this book, we move to 1951 in New York, NY. Each chapter in this section belongs to one of the characters: Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy. Their continued stories are revealed as their lives have converged. Because of the harmonica they each shared, their lives have gone in directions they couldn't possibly have imagined. It is a beautiful culmination of their lives.
And in a forest long ago, three beautiful princesses are freed from their curse and are reunited with their family.
This story was incredible! In the beginning you have no idea how everything fits together. Each story is endearing, and it's hard to leave each one at its cliffhanger. But the end is magnificent. The way the stories fit together is perfect and creative and brilliant, just like a musical composition that haunts you after it's finished. This story will do the same. It is a MUST READ!!!
I recommend this novel for everyone, but especially for middle school boys and girls.
No comments:
Post a Comment