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Overview
Ever since Tess revealed her musical genius at age three, every choice in her life has been made for her. She's been moved to New York, enrolled in a special school, given the best violin teachers, and told when to practice and for how long. But no one ever told Tess what to do if she failed. . . .
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.
Synopsis
The love of music links two young people—one a modern teen, the other a long-dead pioneer from the turn of the century.
Publishers Weekly
Ingold (The Big Burn; The Window) offers a perceptive study of a prodigy violinist undergoing a painful transition. The story begins shortly after 16-year-old Tess is devastated by her first failure, on stage during her first major performance with a professional orchestra. As she faces an uncertain future, she reconsiders her past. She returns to her childhood home in Montana to spend time with her recently remarried father, and begins to rethink her goals and priorities. Tess's story emerges through a series of flashbacks depicting her first violin lessons as a four-year-old, her first formal recital at age nine and her experiences at a prestigious New York City school for gifted performers. Her growth as a musician is interwoven-not always smoothly-with the history of another violinist from Montana, who walked the same path that Tess follows during the hiking trip with her father, her new stepmother (an archeologist researching that violinist) and nine-year-old stepsister. While reliving the turning points in her childhood and pondering the fate of the other violinist, Tess achieves some important insights into herself, her domineering mother and the options still open to her. Tess's fears and uncertainties are convincing, but readers will be most strongly moved by her unfaltering love of music. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Ingold (The Big Burn; The Window) offers a perceptive study of a prodigy violinist undergoing a painful transition. The story begins shortly after 16-year-old Tess is devastated by her first failure, on stage during her first major performance with a professional orchestra. As she faces an uncertain future, she reconsiders her past. She returns to her childhood home in Montana to spend time with her recently remarried father, and begins to rethink her goals and priorities. Tess's story emerges through a series of flashbacks depicting her first violin lessons as a four-year-old, her first formal recital at age nine and her experiences at a prestigious New York City school for gifted performers. Her growth as a musician is interwoven-not always smoothly-with the history of another violinist from Montana, who walked the same path that Tess follows during the hiking trip with her father, her new stepmother (an archeologist researching that violinist) and nine-year-old stepsister. While reliving the turning points in her childhood and pondering the fate of the other violinist, Tess achieves some important insights into herself, her domineering mother and the options still open to her. Tess's fears and uncertainties are convincing, but readers will be most strongly moved by her unfaltering love of music. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.KLIATT
Tess is a child prodigy on the violin, unusual since she is growing up far away from cultural centers—she lives near Missoula, Montana, where her father is a veterinarian. Tess's mother recognizes her little girl's talent early on and pushes for all the right teachers, even to the point of taking Tess to live in New York City, where she can attend special schools, even though this means destroying their little family. The story focuses (and begins) at a point in Tess's life when she is realizing her dreams, performing at 17 with a German symphony; she plays poorly and then faces a kind of emotional breakdown. The subsequent story unfolds, telling how Tess got to this place in her life and her career as a musician, and where she will go from this failure. She leaves her mother and goes to live with her father in Montana, with his new family, and enjoys a "normal" life for a change, without spending hours every day practicing her violin. Her stepmother is a historian who is interested in early homesteads in Montana, and this links to a story about a violin player, Frederick, who homesteaded there in the early part of the 20th century. Hiking in the mountains, uncovering some facts about Frederick's life, helps Tess understand what she wants for herself—she chooses to continue as a musician, back in New York City, but on her own terms. The strength of the story is the development of Tess's character, her love of music, the choices she is forced to make because of her talent. The parallel story (though much briefer) of Frederick and the choices he made decades before Tess are interesting, but not always so apparently connected to Tess's story, so the reader has to be patient. Ingold lives inMontana and she makes it vividly real for her readers. The Big Burn, another of her YA novels, is also set there. She grew up in New York City, so that part of Tess's story is also carefully depicted. The bibliography lists books about music and musicians and also books about Montana history and archaeology. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Harcourt, 307p. bibliog.,— Claire Rosser
Children's Literature
Tess Thaler is a violin prodigy coming to terms with talent and failure during a pivotal summer in Montana, away from the world of serious music. The story opens at the high moment of her young career, her first experience as a soloist, at age sixteen, with an orchestra in Germany. After a disastrous performance, Tess flees New York, her prestigious music school and her mother, who is the driving force behind her music studies. She literally flies home to Missoula, where her father, a veterinarian, lives with Meg, a new, engaging stepmother, who is an archaeologist with the Forest Service, and nine-year-old Amy, a pesky stepsister of average talents who idolizes Tess. Here Tess reflects back over her life, from the earliest hint of her gift all the way forward to the concert in Germany. Meticulously crafted and well researched, the story conveys the impact of extraordinary talent upon a child and a family. Interwoven with Tess' narrative is the tale of a second violinist, Frederick Bottner, who lived in Montana a century before her. In 1905, the orphaned Frederick traded the promise of studying violin with an uncle in Germany for a chance to farm a homestead in Montana with another uncle. On a backpacking trip with her father, Amy and Meg, Tess helps to uncover the remains of Frederick's homestead in the Rattlesnake Wilderness. As the two violinists' stories cross, their respective choices about the role music will play in their lives resonate in a memorable narrative. 2003, Harcourt, Ages 10 up.—J. H. Diehl
VOYA
Two characters' stories are skillfully intertwined in this well-researched and well-written book. Frederik is a young German American of the early 1900s who must decide where to live following the death of his parents. Interestingly, one uncle lives in the Montana wilderness, but the other uncle who lives in Germany would be able to offer violin lessons to Frederik. Tess is a modern-day young sixteen-year-old girl whose parents are divorced. She and her mother live in New York City so that Tess can further her music career. She has been playing the violin since she was three, a proclaimed prodigy. Her father, while supporting Tess's playing, has reservations about how Tess has been pushed by her mother. After a disastrous concert in Germany, Tess returns to Montana where her father is a veterinarian, unsure that she wants to continue playing the violin. Through Meg, her father's new wife, she meets Katharina, Frederik's daughter, who is now in her nineties. Meg is an archeologist with the U.S. Forest Service and is trying to locate Frederik's original homestead. Through the search for the homestead in the Montana forests and Tess's search for where and how to continue her life, Tess's and Frederik's stories are juxtaposed. The characters are well defined and real, the prose is lyrical, and the intertwined stories are masterfully written. This title is not for everyone, but a selected audience will enjoy the forest, the wildlife, and the music that is described in these pages. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2003, Harcourt, 316p., $17. Ages11 to 15.—Susan Allen