Much Music: Fiction Featuring the Musically Inclined
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Beige Katy, a quiet French Canadian teenager, reluctantly leaves Montréal to spend time with her estranged father, an aging Los Angeles punk rock legend. subjects: Fathers and Daughters, Punk Rock Music, Musicians, Self-Perception, Los Angeles (Calif.) |
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Birdland Fourteen-year-old, tongue-tied Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project filming a documentary about his East Village, New York City, neighborhood, where he is continually reminded of his older brother, Zeke, a promising poet who died the year before. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2004 subjects: Video Recordings-Production and Direction, Brothers, Speech Disorders, Jews-New York (State), New York (N.Y.) |
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Blue Monday: The Kids Are Alright Being a teenager can be a difficult job, something the adult world can never understand. While to her parents and teachers getting Adam Ant tickets is no big deal, to Bleu L. Finnegan it means everything. This could be the defining moment of her life, and there is no guarantee that she will ever achieve it. subjects: Teenagers, Graphic Novels |
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Born Blue Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mothers neglect. Through an unhappy foster home experience, and years of feeling that she is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of someday being a famous singer. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2002, Tayshas Reading List: 2004, ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2004 subjects: Abandoned Children, Singers, Mothers and Daughters |
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Born to Rock High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend. awards: Texas Lone Star Reading List : 2008, ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers : 2007 subjects: Identity, Fathers and Sons, Punk Rock Music, Bands (Music) |
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Broken Chords While practicing relentlessly for an important competition, seventeen-year-old Clara wonders if she has the dedication to pursue a career as a concert pianist. awards: ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2004 subjects: Piano, Musicians |
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Candy When Joe meets Candy, it seems like a regular boy-meets-girl scenario. They chat over coffee, she gives him her number, and he writes her a song. But then Joe is drawn into Candy's world --- a world of drugs, violence, and desperation. As the dark truth about Candy's life emerges, Joe finds himself facing real danger at every twist and turn. Soon Joe's conflicting emotions begin to mirror Candy's, and he understands that falling in love just might be worth the struggle. subjects: First Loves, Drug Abuse |
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Fat Kid Rules the World Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2004, Tayshas Reading List: 2005, Michael L. Printz Honor: 2004, ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2005, and more. subjects: Obesity, Musicians, Interpersonal Relations, Drug Abuse, Suicide, New York (NY) |
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Gangsta Rap When teenage Ray and his two friends, Prem and Tyronne, form a successful rap band in the London's East End where they live, they soon find themselves embroiled in increasingly violent gang warfare. subjects: Rap (Music), Blacks-England, Gangs, Interpersonal Relations |
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Good Enough A Korean American teenager tries to please her parents by getting into an Ivy League college, but a new guy in school and her love of the violin tempt her in new directions. subjects: Korean Americans, Gifted Children, Musicians, Violin, Parent and Child, Self-Realization |
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Hopeless Savages Family ties are the earliest ties that bind, setting the tone for the paths we will take in our future. So what if your father is Dirk Hopeless and your mother Nikki Savage, a superstar couple from the days of punk rock? When you're born a rebel, what can you possibly do to make yourself stand apart? For Rat Hopeless-Savage, the answer is to leave home and become a normal citizen with a nine-to-five job! subjects: Graphic Novels, Family |
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Just Listen Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life. subjects: Self-Actualization (Psychology), Models (Persons), Teenage Girls, Family Problems, high Schools, Interpersonal Relations, Best Friends |
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King Dork High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life. subjects: Identity, Fathers, High Schools, Mystery and Detective Stories |
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Mountain Solo Back at her childhood home in Missoula, Montana, after a disastrous concert in Germany, a teenage violin prodigy contemplates giving up life with her mother in New York City and her music as she, her father, stepmother, and stepsister hike to a pioneer homesite where another violinist once faced difficult decisions of his own. awards: Tayshas Reading List: 2005, MarkTwain Award Nominees: 2006 subjects: Violinists, Family Life, Mothers and Daughters, Stepfamilies, Frontier and Pioneer Life, Schools, Montana |
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The Mozart Season Allegra spends her twelfth summer practicing a Mozart concerto for a violin competition and finding many significant connections in her world. awards: ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2004 subjects: Violin, Musicians, Music |
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Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart. For older readers. subjects: Rock Groups, Love, New York (NY) |
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The Orpheus Obsession Sixteen-year-old Anooshka Star who has a tumultuous relationship with her mother, becomes obsessed with a rock singer and follows him into his world, and an unexpected death magnifies her troubles. subjects: Love, Singers, Rock Music, Family Problems, Mothers and Daughters, Sisters |
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Pop Princess Yearning to escape the small Massachusetts town where her family retreated after her sister's death, Wonder Blake gets her chance when her sister's manager offers Wonder a record contract on her sixteenth birthday. awards: Tayshas Reading List: 2006 subjects: Singers, Music Trade, Popular Music, Family Problems, Interpersonal Relations |
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Rock Star Superstar When Pete, a talented bass player, moves from playing in the high school jazz band to playing in a popular rock group, he finds the experience exhilarating even as his new fame jeopardizes his relationship with girlfriend Margaret. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005, ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2005, Capitol Choices List: 2005 subjects: Bands (music), Rock Musicians, Rock Music |
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This Lullaby Raised by a mother who's had five husbands, eighteen-year-old Remy believes in short-term, no-commitment relationships until she meets Dexter, a rock band musician. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2003, Tayshas Reading List: 2004 subjects: Interpersonal Relations, Dating (social customs), Mothers and Daughters, Musicians, Bands (music) |
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Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2000, Bluegrass Award Nominees: 2003, Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Award Nominees: 2002, ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2004 subjects: Mothers and Sons, Brothers, Mentally Handicapped, Rock Music, Seattle (Wash.) |
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What a Song Can Do: 12 Riffs on the Power of Music Featuring articles by such authors as Ron Koertge, Jennifer Armstrong, David Levithan, and Joseph Bruchac, this book explores the powerful impact that music has on our lives. awards: Tayshas Reading List: 2006 subjects: Music, Short Stories |
List updated July 2008—Patti Cook
