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Beethoven in Paradise

Name: Beethoven in Paradise
Author: Barbara O'Connor
ISBN: 9780374405885

by Barbara O'Connor

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Overview

Set in a trailer park called Paradise

"You're just wasting your God-given talents if you don't get yourself something besides a little ole harmonica to play." Wylene made it sound so easy. Martin had always like music -- liked to listen to it, liked to make up tunes in his head. But all he had to do was say the word "piano" to his father and all hell would break loose. His father thought music was for sissies, and was always mad at Martin for not being good at baseball. But with a lot of help from his friends Wylene and Sybil and his grandmother, Hazeline, Martin learns that, although he can't change his father, he can learn to stick up for himself. With humor, pathos, and a colorful cast of offbeat characters, Barbara O'Connor shows that there's room for genius wherever there's a place for compassion-- even in Paradise.

Martin longs to be a musician, and with the encouragement of two very different friends, he eventually is able to defy his mean-hearted father and accept himself and the talent within him.

Synopsis

Set in a trailer park called Paradise

"You're just wasting your God-given talents if you don't get yourself something besides a little ole harmonica to play." Wylene made it sound so easy. Martin had always like music — liked to listen to it, liked to make up tunes in his head. But all he had to do was say the word "piano" to his father and all hell would break loose. His father thought music was for sissies, and was always mad at Martin for not being good at baseball. But with a lot of help from his friends Wylene and Sybil and his grandmother, Hazeline, Martin learns that, although he can't change his father, he can learn to stick up for himself. With humor, pathos, and a colorful cast of offbeat characters, Barbara O'Connor shows that there's room for genius wherever there's a place for compassion— even in Paradise.

Publishers Weekly

Martin, a 12-year-old musician, covets a violin in a pawnshop. "Quirky characters populate this promising first novel set in a South Carolina trailer park," said PW. Ages 10-13. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Barbara O'Connor

Barbara O'Connor is the author of several nonfiction books for young readers. She grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and now lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"Martin. . .is musically talented and lives in a trailer park called Paradise. His macho father thinks that music is for wimps and that real boys play baseball." --School Library Journal

"For every child who never wanted to play sports, a kindred spirit. . .Captures a young boy's heart and holds it out as a gift." --Pointer, Kirkus Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Quirky characters populate this promising, minor-key first novel set in a South Carolina trailer park ironically dubbed Paradise. Twelve-year-old Martin has a rare talent for music, but his father thinks it's a waste of time. Nothing Martin ever has or does is good enough, not his baseball swing, friends or pastimes. "All my life I ain't never had nothing but disappointments, and you're just icing on the cake," his father berates him. When Martin sees a violin in a pawnshop, he dreams of getting it. His unlikely allies are his grandmother Hazeline, his agoraphobic and overweight neighbor, Wylene, and the tall new girl in school, Sybil. The author, who grew up in South Carolina, has an instinctive feel for the local speech and its rhythms. Though the father's emotional cruelty may be difficult reading for some, this book ultimately has a hopeful outlookresilient people rise against the wind, and self-worth is determined chiefly from within. Ages 10-13. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Children's Literature - Karen Saxe

It's a dilemma, that of a child who feels that he doesn't belong in his family or in his environment. The child in this particular story is named Martin. He lives in a trailer park with his overbearing father and defeated mother. Martin would rather play his violin than baseball, and this is the source of his troubles with his father. Life is rough but happily, good triumphs over evil and Martin comes out a winner.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8Martin, almost 13, is musically talented and lives in a trailer park called Paradise. His macho father thinks that music is for wimps and that real boys play baseball, which Martin hates. Actually, when the story begins, Martin is something of a wimp, afraid to stand up to his father and assert himself. But as his love for music grows and as he finds allies in unexpected places, he discovers the inner resources he needs to get started on his own path. Sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, this very Southern novel is laden with local color and eccentric characters. O'Connor's use of specific detailsthe old Studebakers, the Little Debbies, the bacon grease everywhereseems a bit heavy-handed at first, but the author's skillful characterizations and graceful writing style save the day. Readers really get under Martin's skin, making his gradual transformation both realistic and gratifying. Like life, many of the problems here don't have easy answersand, like life, things don't always go the way one might expect them to. The theme of finding oneself despite misunderstanding parents will attract middle school kids. An intriguing first novel from a writer to watch.Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL

Kirkus Reviews

For every child who was ever forced to play sports, a kindred spirit: Martin, 12, the funny, angst-ridden, musically talented hero of O'Connor's first novel. "Paradise" is the name of the South Carolina trailer park where Martin lives with his long- suffering mother, sadistic father, and a peanut gallery of eccentric characters: ultra-shy Wylene, a handkerchief-factory worker who is Martin's closest friend and fellow music-lover; the scrawny, chain-smoking Hazeline, who wants her beloved grandson to stand up to his self-centered father, Ed, who believes that music is for sissies. Ed bullies the boy for daydreaming and pressures him to play on the Little League team, but he can't smother Martin's interest in a violin that he spies in a secondhand store. Wylene's purchase of the violin enables Martin to demonstrate his real talent and to experience genuine happiness; its destruction, in Ed's hands, induces Martin to take his first steps toward his destiny. Readers will relish this trip down South, and they couldn't ask for a better guide than O'Connor, who captures a young boy's heart and holds it out as a gift.