A Song Called Home
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- ¥880
発行者による作品情報
From award-winning author Sara Zarr comes a story of the small moments that show us who we are, and how family is not just something you’re part of, but something you make.
Lou and her family don’t have much, but for Lou it's enough. Mom. Her sister, Casey. Their apartment in the city. Her best friend, Beth. It would be better if Dad could stop drinking and be there for her and Casey, and if they didn't have to worry about money all the time. But Lou doesn’t need better—she only needs enough.
What’s enough for Lou, however, is not enough for Mom. Steve, Mom's boyfriend, isn’t a bad guy, he's just…not what Lou is used to. And now, he and Mom are getting married, and that means moving. Packing up life as they’ve known it and storing it in Steve’s garage. Lou will be separated from everything in her small but predictable life, farther from Dad than ever.
Their last night in the city, Lou receives a mysterious birthday gift: A guitar, left for her by their front door. There’s nothing saying who left it, but it must be from Dad. And as she leaves the only place she’s ever known, she starts to believe that if she can learn how to play it, maybe she can bring a piece of him, and of her old life, home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On her 11th birthday, fifth grader Louisa Emerson discovers a mysterious guitar on her San Francisco doorstep and, assuming it's a gift from her estranged father, decides to learn to play, hoping the action will bring the two closer. Though she misses her dad, Lou is comfortable with the "we" comprising herself, her mom, and her adored teenage sister, Casey, but everything changes when her mom suddenly marries Steve from their Christian church and the family moves from their tiny city apartment to Steve's suburban home. As sensitive, religious Lou strives to adapt to change in her newly affluent white family, she also worries about her dad, who lives with alcohol addiction; losing her close relationship with her best friend Beth, who is Chinese American; and her sister's unpredictable moods. As a way of coping, Lou begins to pocket small objects. This compassionate middle grade debut by Zarr (Goodbye from Nowhere) is rich in small, acutely observed moments (Lu and Beth suck on candy until it takes "the shape of the roof of their mouths" like a retainer) as well as complex and endearing characters. An exceptional, emotionally honest portrait of a tween navigating a blended family. Ages 8–12.
