Pam Muñoz Ryan is the recipient of the Newbery Honor Medal and the Kirkus Prize for her New York Times bestselling novel, Echo, as well as the NEA’s Human and Civil Rights Award and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for multicultural literature for her body of work. She has written more than thirty books for young readers. Her celebrated novels, Echo, Esperanza Rising, The Dreamer, Riding Freedom, Becoming Naomi Léon, and Paint the Wind, have received countless accolades, among them two Pura Belpré Awards, a NAPPA Gold Award, a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and two Americas Awards. Her acclaimed picture books include Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride and When Marian Sang, both illustrated by Brian Selznick, and Tony Baloney, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, as well as a beginning reader series featuring Tony Baloney. Ryan lives near San Diego, CA with her family.
Echo
Hardcover
$19.99
- ISBN-13: 9780439874021
- Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
- Publication date: 02/24/2015
- Pages: 592
- Sales rank: 5,432
- Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 2.00(d)
- Lexile: 680L (what's this?)
- Age Range: 10 - 14 Years
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19.99
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2016 Newbery Honor Book
New York Times Bestseller
An impassioned, uplifting, and virtuosic tour de force from a treasured storyteller!
Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.
Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.
Richly imagined and masterfully crafted, Echo pushes the boundaries of genre, form, and storytelling innovation to create a wholly original novel that will resound in your heart long after the last note has been struck.
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The New York Times Book Review - John Stephens
After reading Pam Muñoz Ryan's enchanting new novel, you'll never think of a harmonica the same way again…Long before the three stories came together in the book's last, triumphant section, I'd been won over by the complex, largehearted characters Muñoz Ryan has created and the virtues—bravery, tolerance, kindness—that the novel espouses. But Muñoz Ryan…is also a writer who cares about sentences…Start to finish, the book is a joy to read.Publishers Weekly
★ 12/22/2014The fairy tale that opens this elegant trio of interconnected stories from Ryan (The Dreamer) sets the tone for the rest of the book, in which a mystical harmonica brings together three children growing up before and during WWII. Friedrich, an aspiring conductor whose birthmark makes him an undesirable in Nazi Germany, must try to rescue his father after his Jewish sympathies land him in a prison camp. In Pennsylvania, piano prodigy Mike and his brother, Frankie, get a chance to escape the orphanage for good, but only if they can connect with the eccentric woman who has adopted them. In California, Ivy Maria struggles with her school’s segregation as well as the accusations leveled against Japanese landowners who might finally offer her family a home of their own. Each individual story is engaging, but together they harmonize to create a thrilling whole. The book’s thematic underpinnings poignantly reveal what Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy truly have in common: not just a love of music, but resourcefulness in the face of change, and a refusal to accept injustice. Ages 10–14. Agent: Kendra Marcus, BookStop Literary Agency. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Awards and Praise for Echo:
New York Times Notable Book
Publishers Weekly Best Book
ILA Notable Book for a Global Society
ALA Notable Children's Book
*“The story of Otto and the cursed sisters honor timeless and traditional folktales [and] Ryan has created three contemporary characters who, through faith and perseverance, write their own happy endings, inspiring readers to believe they can do the same.” --School Library Journal, starred review
*“A grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance, it's worth every moment of readers' time.” --Kirkus, starred review
*“Each individual story is engaging, but together they harmonize to create a thrilling whole.” --Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A masterpiece.” --Christopher Paul Curtis, author of Newbery Medal-winning Bud, Not Buddy
“Daring and beautiful.” --Linda Sue Park, author of Newbery Medal-winning A Single Shard
VOYA, February 2015 (Vol. 37, No. 6) - Pam Carlson
Would you believe that a harmonica can save lives? It all begins with a witch’s curse on her three foster daughters. They will never find their way home until a musical instrument is used to rescue a life on the brink of death. Young Otto meets them when he gets lost in the woods. Later his career as a harmonica maker launches their way to freedom when one of his creations is touched with magic. Three children living during the World War II era unknowingly pass that same harmonica along to one another. Each plays not only with skill but also with a beautiful infusion of intensity and longing. Friedrich dreams of becoming a conductor but must first flee Hitler’s Germany. Pianist Mike, an orphan in Pennsylvania, agrees to join the Harmonica Wizards to protect his brother. Excellent student and harmonica virtuoso, Hispanic Ivy misses an opportunity to play a solo on the radio and is then stunned to discover the depths of racism when her family relocates from Fresno to Orange County. Each of their stories ends in probable tragedy. Years later, their lives coincide in a tearful, joyous night of music. Resilient, smart characters refuse to give in to circumstances seemingly beyond their control. Ryan’s stories never fail to touch the heart, but this one is also a resounding argument to maintain music programs in schools. To quote Ivy’s music teacher, “Everyone needs the beauty and light of music, especially during the worst of times.” Reviewer: Pam Carlson; Ages 11 to 18.Children's Literature - Paula McMillen
Five intertwined story lines wend from a magical forest to various locations during WWII; each story leads into the next. Each set of characters’ fates is intertwined with those in the stories that follow—all connected by a small musical instrument. Three babies, who should have been princesses, are hidden away in a witch’s house. Otto discovers the young girls when he gets lost during a game of hide-and-seek. They are trapped in the forest and can only be freed if Otto takes the gift they offer and passes it along. It carries a prophecy of saving a life. Many years later, a young aspiring musician and conductor finds an unusual harmonica in the Hohner factory where he works. The music it makes is unworldly and beautiful, but the harmonica must be left behind when Otto leaves his small town to ransom his father from a concentration camp. The harmonica next finds itself in the hands of two boys, adopted from an abusive orphanage in Pennsylvania. The older brother, Mike, plays his way into the famous Hoxie Philadelphia Harmonica Band. The harmonica is later donated to needy children as Mike’s musical career takes off. In California, budding musician Ivy must leave behind friends and a supportive teacher when her family takes up curatorial responsibility for the farm of an interned Japanese American family, the Yamamotos. She is shocked to find that while in her new home, she must attend a separate school with other Mexican children even though she was born in the United States. Still, her compelling harmonica solo earns her a place playing the flute in the school orchestra and she passes the harmonica along to the oldest son of the Yamamotos, who is a Marine. The harmonica stops a bullet aimed at his heart. The final part of the book bring closure to all these stories, notably when a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1951 features the conductor Friedrich, the newest flautist, Ivy, and guest piano soloist, Mike. This book deals with difficult issues in an accessible way, thereby inviting discussion about prejudice and the fears and actions that can follow on both personal and national levels. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.; Ages 10 to 15.School Library Journal
★ 12/01/2014Gr 5–8—"Long before enchantment was eclipsed by doubt," a young boy named Otto lost in the woods is rescued by three sisters imprisoned there by a witch's curse. In return, he promises to help break the curse by carrying their spirits out of the forest in a mouth harp and passing the instrument along when the time is right. The narrative shifts to the 20th century, when the same mouth harp (aka harmonica) becomes the tangible thread that connects the stories of three children: Friedrich, a disfigured outcast; Mike, an impoverished orphan; and Ivy, an itinerant farmer's child. Their personal struggles are set against some of the darkest eras in human history: Friedrich, the rise of Nazi Germany; Mike, the Great Depression; Ivy, World War II. The children are linked by musical talent and the hand of fate that brings Otto's harmonica into their lives. Each recognizes something unusual about the instrument, not only its sound but its power to fill them with courage and hope. Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy are brought together by music and destiny in an emotionally triumphant conclusion at New York's Carnegie Hall. Meticulous historical detail and masterful storytelling frame the larger history, while the story of Otto and the cursed sisters honor timeless and traditional folktales. Ryan has created three contemporary characters who, through faith and perseverance, write their own happy endings, inspiring readers to believe they can do the same.—Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2014-12-06A multilayered novel set in turbulent times explores music's healing power. Sweeping across years and place, Ryan's full-bodied story is actually five stories that take readers from an enchanted forest to Germany, Pennsylvania, Southern California and finally New York City. Linking the stories is an ethereal-sounding harmonica first introduced in the fairy-tale beginning of the book and marked with a mysterious M. In Nazi Germany, 12-year-old Friedrich finds the harmonica in an abandoned building; playing it fills him with the courage to attempt to free his father from Dachau. Next, the harmonica reaches two brothers in an orphanage in Depression-era Pennsylvania, from which they are adopted by a mysterious wealthy woman who doesn't seem to want them. Just after the United States enters World War II, the harmonica then makes its way to Southern California in a box of used instruments for poor children; as fifth-grader Ivy Lopez learns to play, she discovers she has exceptional musical ability. Ryan weaves these stories together, first, with the theme of music—symbolized by the harmonica—and its ability to empower the disadvantaged and discriminated-against, and then, at the novel's conclusion, as readers learn the intertwined fate of each story's protagonist. A grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance, it's worth every moment of readers' time. (Historical fiction. 9-14)