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Book Review: The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

© Teresa Knight

This month, I am adding a second book review. The book, The Song Reader, is the debut novel by author Lisa Tucker. (Ms. Tucker is the author of my previous book review this month, Shout Down The Moon.)

Ms. Tucker is an incredible writer, who uses her love of music to flow throughout her books, intertwined with memorable characters and good plots.

The main characters in The Song Reader are Mary Beth and her younger sister, Leeann. This story is told through Leeann's perspective.

When their mother dies (their father has left them years ago), Mary Beth works as a waitress to support herself and her sister. Mary Beth also has her own, very unique talent she terms, "song reader." Through hearing the song lyrics people cannot forget, she is able to help them with decisions regarding their lives. Once she starts helping people, everyone in town starts realizing her talent and they come to her, praising her for all the help she has given them--even a skeptic, Ben, a scientist, who falls in love with Mary Beth.

Mary Beth has no idea when she helps Holly that a long-silenced secret in their small community will be revealed. No one wants to believe the secret. Between a town divided, Leeann learns a hard lesson that every gift has a price. When Mary Beth gives up song reading and falls into a deep, dark depression, Leann must face the past secrets from her own family. Fighting to save her sister, Leeann comes to realize that her love and that of their torn apart family is all that may be able to save her sister.

This story is also filled with unforgettable, yet tragic secondary characters, whose lives interlace with Mary Beth and Leeann and help Leeann come to terms with her own life.

The Song Reader is a deeply expressive, unforgettable, gripping story which explores the family: what makes it, what can break it apart and what can be its salvation.

The Song Reader has received many distinctions/awards including: Borders Original Voices pick; Book Sense 76 selection; a featured book on CBS The Early Show; The launch title for Seventeen magazine's fiction club; "Promising debut" in Pages magazine; a Working Mother magazine "must read"; 2004 Popular Paperback for Young Adults chosen by the American Library Association; Featured book on the public radio program "To the Best of our Knowledge"; Starred reviewed in Publishers Weekly; Editor's Choice in The Philadelphia Inquirer; Book Browse Book of the Year; Book Sense 2004-2005 Reading Group Suggestion and ABA recommended book for teens.