Our 4th and 5th grade students who are ready to tackle a long novel are really enjoying it. I wondered if young readers would like the way Ryan shifts each section of the story to another location, following the harmonica as it travels from Europe to America in the 1930s and 1940s. The chapter ends on a cliff-hanger as Friedrich tries to rescue his father from a Nazi prison camp.
Friedrich works in a harmonica factory with his father and discovers the magical harmonica that Otto leaves behind.
Through Friedrich, readers really feel the power of music to inspire and fill a person's soul. Ryan not only shows the conformity insisted upon by the Nazis, but also the risks people took to stay true to their ideas and passions. The story then shifts to 1933 in Germany, where young Friedrich struggles to survive in Nazi Germany, dealing both with a birthmark on his face and an intense love of music, especially the harmonica. They will only be free if the harmonica can save someone on the brink of death. In this tale, young Otto started to read a magical story that suddenly comes to life - in which the spirits of three cursed princesses are carried in a mystical harmonica. Ryan's story is framed by a short fairy tale that introduces themes carried through the whole book. Already, my students are raving about this, telling each other that it's one of the best books of the year. Themes of hope, resilience and inspiration echo (yes, pun intended) throughout three different characters' separate stories, set in Germany, Pennsylvania and California in the 1930s and 1940s. Pam Muñoz Ryan captivates readers with this multilayered story set around the tumult of World War II.
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