Playing Through the Turnaround
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In a timely, insightful story told with sparkling wit and heart, young musicians protesting plans for budget cuts navigate miscalculations, indifferent adults, and unexpected loss as they discover the power of speaking out and the value of listening.
“A brave and dazzling debut, this timely novel is a blueprint for hope.”—Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medalist and best-selling author of The One and Only Ivan
“Keen and clear and fiercely funny.”—Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist and best-selling author of A Long Walk to Water
“Brilliant, sharp, comic, poignant, and true.”— Gary D. Schmidt, two-time Newbery Honor-winning author of The Wednesday Wars
“A splendid novel filled with honesty and heart.”—Karina Yan Glaser, best-selling author of the Vanderbeekers series.
Fifth period is hands down the best time of day in Connor U. Eubanks Middle School, because that’s when Mr. Lewis teaches Jazz Lab. So his students are devastated when their beloved teacher quits abruptly. Once they make a connection between budget cuts and Mr. Lewis’s disappearance, they hatch a plan: stop the cuts, save their class.
Soon, they become an unlikely band of crusaders, and their quest quickly snowballs into something much bigger—a movement involving the whole middle school. But the adults in charge seem determined to ignore their every protest. How can the kids make themselves heard?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this poignant novel by Larsen (Ho Ho Homework), a middle school jazz band uses artistic activism to fight for a say in their school's education budget spending decisions. Connor U. Eubanks Middle School eighth graders Jake, Cassie, Lily, Mac, and Nick, each wrestling with myriad interpersonal challenges, "make the mad go away" in Jazz Lab, an audition-only music elective. Playing jazz helps them communicate things they can't find the words for, but a fiscally conservative school board member alludes to budget cuts and their beloved mentor unexpectedly quits, jeopardizing Jazz Lab. When they learn that other electives are also on the chopping block, the musicians—with the help of rebellious troublemaking classmate Quagmire—resolve to use their instruments, and their voices, to persuade the adults to listen to their needs. Through emotionally charged, alternating present-tense perspectives and expertly developed characters, the narrative eschews easy answers in this powerful portrayal of a ragtag group of students coming together to accomplish a common goal. Larsen elevates this optimistic, community-focused tale by mimicking jazz's "back-and-forth" conversational style to parallel the listening and response that effective activism requires. Characters follow a white default. Ages 8–12.
