Echo transports the reader into the lives of ordinary teenagers who find resilience and courage to make a difference in an unfair world. It is listed for upper middle grade and young adult. Bottom line: No matter your age, this book is inspiring.
I didn’t read Echo. I devoured it.
The author, Pam Munoz Ryan, begins the book as a fantasy which evolves into three historical fiction stories that connect to each other through a harmonica. It’s a clever time-slip filled with suspense.
The first story follows a teenage boy’s struggle against Hitler’s youth movement in Germany in 1933. As the Nazis close in to arrest the teen, the author transports the reader to Pennsylvania in 1935. Two adopted brothers have to navigate life with a new family. When they learn they’ll be sent back to their formidable orphanage, they try to run away. Once again, the reader is left in suspense, and a third story begins in 1942 in California. A Hispanic girl navigates prejudice as her father, a migrant worker, moves his family to find field work.
Yes, Echo is a long novel, but it’s a fast page turner. I felt the characters’ pain and had to know the ending of each story which Ryan weaves together in a final setting in New York in the 1950’s.
Happy Reading!