Guitar Notes by Mary Amato - ESSENTIAL

Amato, Mary  Guitar Notes, 296 pgs.  Egmont, 2012.  $16.99  Content:  Language: G; Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG. 

Lyla is a cellist who excels in all that she tries: school, community service, and especially her music.  She seems to have a perfect life and her father is always providing opportunities for her to advance in her music.  Lyla’s best friend Annie also helps her to work on her music and in her take-charge way helps Lyla to have the perfect scholarship application.  Tripp on the other hand, is seen as a bit of an outcast at school, he says what he is thinking without editing.  Tripp’s mother has taken his guitar from him because she wants him to spend more time on his grades and get a better social life, or any social life at all.  At school, Tripp and Lyla’s paths cross when they share a music room during lunch.  Tripp gets the odd days and Lyla gets even.  They start exchanging notes in the guitar strings in the music room, and at first they argue with each other and then they start to challenge each other.  Eventually they develop a friendship that helps both of them.  

This is a great book!  I cried, I laughed and I didn’t want it to end.  I loved the character growth and I felt like it was realistic without any overly dramatic teenage angst.  The songs that the characters write could be used in an English classroom on a unit about the process of writing poetry.  I enjoyed this book and think it’s a must for any school.  

MS, HS-ESSENTIAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.