Interesting, but also painful for me and for Friedrich and his father. It also was very interesting reading about Friedrich’s older sister, Elisabeth, who becomes a Hitlerite, joining the League, the girls equivalent to Hitler Youth. It was really unsettling to read as things got progressively worse and worse for him, his father, and his uncle. Each child comes to possess a very special harmonica, each child his musically gifted, and each faces the threat of their family being torn apart.įriedrich is growing up in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power. Second, it’s a historical novel that weaves three different narratives together. For one, it’s a doorstop, clocking in at almost 600 pages (but it reads quickly, don’t worry there’s also a lot of white space, so it doesn’t seem as daunting as you’d think). Echo is much different from Pam’s other books. Her middle grade books are wonderful coming of age stories that feature young heroines who have supportive families. I read and loved Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising and Becoming Naomi Leon. The result is an impassioned, uplifting, and virtuosic tour de force that will resound in your heart long after the last note has been struck. Richly imagined and masterfully crafted, ECHO pushes the boundaries of genre and form, and shows us what is possible in how we tell stories. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together.

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.ĭecades 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.

Music, magic, and a real-life miracle meld in this genre-defying masterpiece from storytelling maestro Pam Muñoz Ryan. | Source: The publisher via Shelf Awareness. | My copy: ARC, 585 pages, Scholastic Press, released February 24th, 2015.

Echo pam munoz ryan review