Reviewed by Kathy Thornhill, Zauel Memorial Library Click here to find this book in our catalog. Their stories are linked by their musical talents and fate bringing Otto’s harmonica into their lives, coming together in a triumphant conclusion at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It begins with a boy growing up in early Nazi Germany. Michael and his brother are orphans, trying to stay together, and Ivy faces prejudice because she’s Mexican and her friends are Japanese. Echo follows the story of three different points of view during World War 2. Friedrich and his father must escape Nazi Germany because they don’t fall into line with Hitler’s grand scheme. Each child has a musical gift and is faced with personal struggles. Echo is a novel of great ambition, with four historical settings, different characters and stories in a planned symphony that doesn’t quite sound perfect when it all comes together in the end. This harmonica ties Otto with three other children-Friedrich in Germany during the Third Reich, an orphan Michael during the Great Depression and Ivy during World War II. In return for their help, he promises to help break the curse by carrying their spirits hidden in a magical mouth harp-what we know today as a harmonica, and passing the instrument along to the right person at the right time.

Long ago, a boy named Otto was lost in the woods and rescued by three sisters imprisoned there by a witch’s curse. When I did, all I could think was, “Wow.” Echo is a middle grade historical fiction novel written by Pam Muoz Ryan, illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova, and published by Scholastic Press in 2015. I just read it this morning and couldn’t put it down.

Echo pam ryan