I know lots of people out there do book reviews and what not and I’m not trying to steal their shtick but everyone’s entitled to their own opinion right? This just happens to be mine.
Anyway, the first book I want to take a look at is Sky by Roderick Townley. It’s about a teenage boy named Sky who loves his jazz piano but his father is against it. It was a fairly easy read, with a pretty interesting storyline. I liked that, although this book is very focused on music in general and jazz in particular, it isn’t bogged down with terms that musically illiterate people wouldn’t understand. That is actually something that I can’t stand when I read books centered on music. They fill it with all these terms that only people who read music will understand and honestly it just makes these books sound pretentious. Sky, however, was pretty good about not making the story only about how great jazz is and how stupid all the non-musicians are.
Here’s what bugged me about it. The summary pretty much gave the entire plot away. It was obvious from the beginning what was going to happen but the book didn’t even let me read a few pages before I figured it out. You read the summary on the back and you basically know what is going to happen. Another thing about it is the characters. You’re given a taste of who they are but they are never fully developed, even the main character Sky. All you ever really know about him is his love for the piano and that his family is messed up.
Still the writing was pretty good and the story wasn’t slow at all. It was a fairly simple read that kept me more or less interested. I’d say that if you run into this book and you’re not in the middle of something else, pick it up and give it a try but don’t go out looking for it.
-Nikki
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