Music

Crazy Diamond

That’s Mira M. And this is the story of her unforgettable life — as a kid alone in a junkyard tire swing, to her escape from Croatia at age 9 in a Marshall amp road case in the rear of her uncle Lou’s van. A musician, he hands her the key to her future: a guitar. When she’s 14, Mira meets Melody, Rosa and Jackson, three teens who stow away from Ghana in a ship-ping container and end up — to their surprise — in Hamburg, Germany. What stories they have! And what a story the four of them, plus Kralle (a little older and wiser) and Zucka (the record producer’s son), share on the way to the fame that all of them covet — except Mira, even after the MTV Awards show in Barcelona. Her song lyrics tell her truth. But are they her lyrics? Her music? She swears so. But who listens, now that she’s 18 — and dead?

A Song for Cambodia

The true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, Cambodian American musician and human rights activist, who as a young boy survived Khmer Rouge work camps by learning to play a musical instrument.

In Mozart’s Shadow: His Sister’s Story

Nannerl Mozart was a musical prodigy who seemed to have a brilliant future. But once her younger brother, Wolfgang, began composing symphonies at the age of five, her career and talents were utterly eclipsed. Here, at last, is Nannerl’s heart-wrenching tale. It’s the story of her undying passion for music; her relationship with her “miracle boy” brother; and her life as the “other Mozart,” the one forgotten by history.           The acclaimed Carolyn Meyer has written a powerful historical novel about a little-known but gifted musician who never stopped dreaming. Includes an author’s note.

The Bremen Town Musicians

This is the classic tale of four beleaguered animals—a donkey who can no longer work, a hound who can no longer hunt, a cat who’s too old to chase mice, and a rooster who’s scheduled to become dinner—who decide to run off to be musicians in the town of Bremen. But they get more than they bargained for when they stumble upon a frightful gang of robbers.

Salsa Stories

Salsa music blares from the stereo. One by one, friends and family, who come from all around Latin America, arrive at Carmen Teresa’s house to cook, dance, gossip, and play dominoes. And the New Year’s Day celebration begins… When a neighbor gives Carmen Teresa a blank notebook as a holiday present, she doesn’t know how she will fill it. The guests all have ideas of what she should do with her book. They decide she should fill it with stories about their childhoods. And everyone has a story to tell. But Carmen Teresa, who loves to cook, surprises everyone with how she will use her beautiful new present. With energy, sensitivity, and warmth, Lulu Delacre introduces readers to a symphony of colorful characters whose stories dance through a year of Latin American holidays and customs. And readers will also be treated to recipes for the irresistible foods that appear in each story. When Lulu Delacre set out to collect family recipes for a cookbook of traditional Latin American foods, she discovered something amazing. “How often the flavors of our childhood,” says Ms. Delacre, “unlock memories from our past.” It was this discovery that inspired her also to collect those memories that her friends and family recalled. And she based Salsa Stories on those recollections.

The Mozart Question

Like any young boy, Paolo becomes obsessed with what he can’t have — in his case, a violin. Hidden away in his parents’ room, it beckons the boy to release the music inside it. The music leads Paolo to a family secret, a story of World War II that changed the course of his parents’ lives. But once the truth is told, the family is reunited in a way no one had thought possible.

Garage Band

When Giuliano’s father loans him the family garage, he and three of his friends form a band. Playing their battered secondhand instruments, the four teenagers find something they love to do, and they find in their friendship and music a refuge from difficult and turbulent home lives.  But when their only amp blows a fuse, a desperate search for some new equipment lands them in more trouble than they ever saw coming. Graphic novels with stunning watercolors by the renowned Italian artist Gipi.

The New Policeman

Irish teenager J.J. Liddy discovers that time is leaking from his world into Tir na n’Og, the land of the fairies, and when he attempts to stop the leak he finds out a lot about his family history, the music that he loves, and a crime his great-grandfather may or may not have committed.