Music Lover's Pick: Guitar Notes

Guitar Notes
By Mary Amato
Egmont
2012
296 pages with original songs/music for guitar

Don't forget I have 5 copies of this exciting new ya read up for grabs. Just post a comment to the blog and include your first name, city, state, and email address. Winners are chosen randomly by Randomizer. Winners will be notified August 31, 2012. Deadline for posts is noon MST on August 30. Good luck and start posting!

Visit the thrum society here (tips on songwriting and songs)

Captivating, inspiring, lyrical, and beautiful, Guitar Notes sings off the pages. Music lovers and opposites Tripp and Lyla share a practice room at school. On odd days, Tripp uses the room to practice guitar, write songs, and just inspire himself. A true music lover, Tripp doesn’t have to play a song; he plays to play for the love of it. Music is like breathing for Tripp.

Lyla has the room on even days. Lyla is Little Miss Perfect. She’s beautiful, smart, popular, and a gifted cellist. Lyla is first chair and works hard to be number one. She finds trash left in the room by Tripp and writes him a note:

“Dear Odd Day Musician, We are sharing this room. Please remove your trash from the music stand when you are done. Thanks, --The Even Day Musician”

Tripp can’t believe it, and leaves Miss Perfect his own little note. He is equally parts insulting, snarky, and funny. Soon, the two are leaving each other daily notes. Can two such different people find each other and themselves through their love of music?

Lyla feels like she’s having a heart attack. She is under unbearable stress to perform in school, at home, on stage, and her parents are forcing her to try out for a prestigious music school. Tripp sees that Lyla is a gifted cellist but really doesn’t feel the music; she is a performer, not a music lover. When Lyla learns a few guitar chords, there’s no stopping their friendship.

Anyone with a love of music and guitar, anyone with a background in performing, anyone who knows what it’s like to be pushed into something your parents want you to do will enjoy Guitar Notes. Tripp and Lyla are an unforgettable team. Girls will love Tripp’s humor and feel empathy for good girl Lyla who tries hard to overachieve.

I love the cover with the characters’ notes to each other on the guitar. Readers will like the songs and music included in the book. Guitar lovers may be inspired to try the songs and maybe write a song of their own.

Highly recommended grades 7-up. No sex. No language.

Book Giveaway: Guitar Notes

I have 5 copies of this great new ya read! This is from the publisher's website:

"On odd days, Tripp Broody uses a school practice room to let loose on a borrowed guitar. Eyes closed, strumming that beat-up instrument, Tripp escapes to a world where only the music matters.

On even days, Lyla Marks uses the same practice room. To Tripp, she’s trying to become even more perfect—she’s already a straight-A student and an award-winning cellist. But when Lyla begins leaving notes for him in between the strings of the guitar, his life intersects with hers in a way he never expected.

What starts as a series of snippy notes quickly blossoms into the sharing of interests and secrets and dreams, and the forging of a very unlikely friendship.

Challenging each other to write songs, they begin to connect, even though circumstances threaten to tear them apart.

From beloved author Mary Amato comes a YA novel of wit and wisdom, both heartfelt and heart­breaking, about the power of music and the unexpected chords that draw us together."

Post a comment on the blog. Please include your first name, city, state, and email address. Deadline for posts is August 30 at noon MST. Winners will be chosen randomly by Randomizer. Please check your email on Aug. 31 to see if you won. Books will ship from New York.

Good luck and please start posting. Pamela

Romance Pick: If I Stay

If I Stay
by Gayle Forman
Speak (Penguin Group), 2009
234 pages

Beautifully written and evocative of Love Story, If I Stay will resonate with teen readers.

What choice would you make? Life or letting go? Mia is in the position to choose life with all its tragedies or simply fading away--the easy way out. Mia wakes and finds herself at the side of the road and realizes her body is on a stretcher bound for the hospital. Her body is in a coma after a horrible car accident leaves her without her mother and father and little brother, but her mind is active and alert.

The reader looks back at Mia's life through her eyes: her early years with her semi-hippie parents, her dad's playing in a rock band, her mother's feminism, the birth of her baby brother, her dad quitting the band and becoming "responsible."

Mia loves life and her boyfriend Adam. In her "out of body" experience, she is able to hear and see her grandparents and friends as they visit her in the hospital. A bright musical future awaits Mia, the classical prodigy who may earn a spot at Juilliard. If I Stay tells the story of Mia and Adam meeting and falling in love and how much Adam wants her to live.

Break out the tissues! Readers will be weeping while Mia decides "if I stay..."

Recommended grades 9-up. Mature grade 8 readers will probably be okay with this novel. Some langauge.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I purchased this book for my grade 8 romance readers. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.