🏝️Introducing Book Beach! + Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

a place for book talk & a lovely, timely read

Book Beach

I’m changing my section “Learning Lagoon” to “Book Beach”!

I think the more specific focus will better suit my needs in this busy phase of life I’m in. Maybe later on I’ll have more time for that wider road (of writing about anything I’m learning/interested in); right now I need this narrower shortcut.

I’ve always reading books—I can easily talk about books! 😁

So here is my little “book beach” for talking about books whenever I can. (Given the January cold right now, I’m attracted to anything involving the word “beach”!)

For my first entry, a lovely, gentle, and timely read:

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Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

I just finished the book Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, a middle-grade novel of interweaving historical fiction stories, plus a bit of magical realism. It’s a rich and beautiful work of storytelling.

I listened to the audiobook through my Libby app (via my library), which was great, especially because of the musical features that are tightly interwoven with the plot of the story.

(Note: if you don’t have Libby [and if you don’t have a library card], you’re missing out on tons of free audiobooks and also ebooks! I would be glad to help you get started if you need it!)

The book consecutively tells the stories of:

1. Friedrich, a misfit boy in Nazi Germany;

2. Mike, an orphan in Philadelphia in 1935; and

3. Ivy, an itinerant farmer’s daughter in California, 1942;

framed by the magical story of Otto, a boy from an older time.

As the characters face hardship and cruelty due to World War II and its many ripple effects, we love them and find goodness, gentleness, and most of all music in the world with them.

For me, this book felt both gentle and relevant, like soothing medicine in times of scary cruelty happening in the world around me. I highly recommend it!

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