![]() ![]() The intricate, multi-layered set-up is thus: A boy named Otto reads a magical story – drawn to it by a shared name – titled The Thirteenth Harmonica of Otto Messenger, about three nameless sisters who have dutifully served a mean grumpy witch all their lives. That extraordinary harmonica plays through three additional stories that follow: about musically-gifted Friedrich who must save his father from Nazi brutality about Mike who will do anything to keep his younger brother out of the orphanage and about Ivy whose family is entrusted with a Japanese American family’s farm when they are sent to a prison camp during World War II. Then – in another reason to visit your local library often – make sure to at least hold the book and ogle the gorgeous pages, especially the beginning and end. The fairy-tale opening and close are framed in reverse black-and-white – that is, dark pages printed with white type, bordered with curling branches of many leaves. For the most magnificent experience, choose to go aural with a pitch-perfect quartet to narrate the four distinct stories that make up this stupendous new novel from award-winning Pam Muñoz Ryan. ![]()
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