Echo

I've been waiting for books on long hold lists at the library and needed something to read so I revisited my wish list and found Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan and decided to give it a go. It's a children's book, so it was a very fast read and yet the story is fantastic and sucked me in from the very beginning.

It follows a harmonica through time and around the world as different children experience the magical effects of the instrument, but also of music. The longest story told is of a young girl, Ivy, who lives during World War II in California with her family. She's poor, hispanic, and extremely talented musically. The harmonica is the one thing she carries with her everywhere she goes.

Ryan takes the object and music and weaves a wonderful story that spans time and somehow in the end she ties it all back together again in one of the most satisfying endings of a book that I've read in a long time. If you have a weekend afternoon I recommend this one.