Have you ever read a book that left you feeling as though there was a small weight settling in your heart, and you knew that story had become a part of you that would never leave? My attempt to explain this is woeful, and more exaggeratedly so because I've been immersed in the beautiful words of Pam Munoz Ryan's Echo for the last four days. Let's just say that I've spent four days reading, and I know that little weight that is Echo is already a part of me. The book is nearly 600 pages, but those pages flew by as I read this amazingly crafted story. 
 I suppose I shouldn't admit that, as an elementary school teacher, I have never read any of Ryan's books in the past. I've heard others rave about them, and I have them in my classroom library, but I've never made reading one of them a priority in my "must read stack". I picked this one up because the Mock Newbery Group I'm in chose it as their book for April. I was skeptical. I looked at how thick the book was and (probably as many students do) felt a bit of discouragement and dread. I shouldn't have worried. 
 Echo is the story of a handcrafted harmonica and the lives it touches as it makes its way through a handful of owners. The story starts and ends with a boy, Otto, who was the first character in the story to own the harmonica. Over the course of the book, three other individuals' lives are impacted greatly while the harmonica is in their possession. First, there's Friedrich, a boy living in Germany as Hitler rises to power. Friedrich is struggling to overcome adversity and ensure that he and his family will be safe and free from Hitler's wrath. Later, the harmonica moves to Michael, a boy living with his younger brother, Frankie, in an orphanage after the deaths of both his mother and later his grandmother. It is the Great Depression, which makes being placed even more unlikely, yet it's Michael's greatest wish to be safely placed in a home, but only if he and Frankie can be kept together. Finally, there is Ivy, a young Mexican-American girl in Southern California whose family has always moved frequently in order for her father to find farm work. When Ivy's family has the opportunity to manage a farm for a Japanese family moved to an internment camp (following the bombing of Pearl Harbor) it seems it may be a perfect solution, but things aren't always as they appear at first glance. 
 I love this book for so many reasons. I love the way the entire story is "connected by the same silken thread" of the harmonica and the main characters' love for music. I love that the book begins and ends with Otto's "fairy tale", which places the harmonica at the center of the entire book's plot. I love the historical setting, and the care with which Ryan writes the history accurately. I definitely loved the characters and felt deeply for all of them-- and worried over what would become of them. As a musician, I really love the message this book sends about how music and art can bring beauty and joy, strength and courage to people. 
 I have read where some worry that the book will be "too much" for some middle grade readers, and that the length and historical content may turn some away. I'm not sure, this could happen, but I also feel that if the book is shared with or introduced to kids by adults who appreciate it, they will appreciate it as well.