Excellent book. I highly recommend listening to this book rather than reading it. All four protagonists are musicians, and I think you will appreciate the story more if you hear the music as you read it, at least I did.

An epic masterpiece. ( )

OH MY GOODNESS. I fell in love with this book. My coworker always recommends it to patrons on the bus and yes, I have been interested by it. But now I finally grabbed it for myself.

I was nervous at first. We start in a funky fantasy scene that made me skeptical of the book. But then we drifted into stories from World War II Germany, the California of Japanese Internment camps, and others.........We followed a harmonica that touches lives and carries a story all its own. I was shocked by the poignancy of the story, the deep topics the story tackled. Boy oh Boy, do I wish this has won the Newbery Medal over "Last Stop on Market Street."

I don't often buy newer children's chapter books. (I don't think most are written well or will last the test of time.) But I fully intend to buy this book. ( )

I read this book in the strangest conditions (and that's not even counting the fact that I read it during social distancing to avoid Covid-19!) - I had exactly enough time left on my library loan to finish this book listening at 2X speed before it automatically returned. And there is a several weeks long wait list. So, I powered through it and finished with less than 20 minutes to spare. And still... it was SO GOOD. I highly recommend it. It starts like a fairy tale, which is a thing I typically can't get into. Then, there are three distinct, apparently unrelated stories - abrupt changes in storyline often bug me. But they are all lovely and hopeful, and the ending is just wonderful. A perfect listen during crazy times. ( )

Lovely poetic book that deals with some dark themes. True modern fairytale with perhaps unrealistically happy endings, but an absolute joy to read. ( )