Baby Grand, The Moon in July, and Me (Puffin Novel) - Softcover

Barnes, Joyce Annette

4

12 ratings by Goodreads

9780141300610: Baby Grand, The Moon in July, and Me (Puffin Novel)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141300612 ISBN 13: 9780141300610

Publisher: Puffin, 1998

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When Annie's brother buys a piano without her parent's approval, the family begins to battle and Annie, who dreams of becoming an astronaut, finds her beautiful dreams disturbed as she ends up in the middle of the family feud. Reprint.

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-Annie Armstrong, 10, who wants to be an astronaut when she grows up, is excited because the first mission to the moon is about to be launched. Her parents are more concerned with worries about money and their teenaged son, who wants to be a jazz musician. When Matty comes home with a piano he has bought on credit, his father makes him return it. The boy leaves home, only to reappear when given a chance to play a concert grand in a neighborhood talent show, which Annie has arranged to take place at an elderly neighbor's home. The plot and resolution are contrived: when Mr. Armstrong hears Matty play, he is reconciled to his son's musical future; and the lonely, reclusive neighbor suddenly opens himself up to his community. Both Annie and her brother's dreams, symbolized by the flight and landing of Apollo 11, form the theme of the novel. Although the present-tense dialogue often reads like the stage play form in which the story first appeared, there is promise here. Annie is a believable, likable girl, and her relationships with her family and friends are realistic and amusing. The characters are memorable, and the story does present a picture of growing up poor in the late 1960s.
Margaret C. Howell, West Springfield Elementary School, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 4-6. Annie Armstrong, a smart, black 10-year-old, dreams of becoming an astronaut as she watches the Apollo 11 space mission to the moon in July_ 1969. Her 19-year-old brother, Matty, a gifted musician who dreams of playing jazz, orders a baby grand piano delivered to the house on credit--to the fury of his poor, hardworking father, who drives his son out of the house. The plot then creaks with all kinds of coincidence and contrivance as Annie organizes a talent show in which her brother gets to play a concert grand piano, and the message is heavily spelled out in metaphor about the spaceflight ("I'm on a mission"). It's Annie's candid, present-tense, first-person narrative that will keep kids reading. Through her eyes, we see the humanity and spirit of her family, their voices yearning, loving, angry. The quarrel between father and son is fierce and wounding ("You've never been the kind of father a boy would look up to"), and though they are finally reconciled, Matty leaves home, as he must. Matty's music is a compelling theme throughout, especially the heartbreaking comedy of his daring to have the piano delivered home. As in the recent prizewinning movie, The Piano, the instrument comes to stand for a dreaming, stubborn sense of self. Hazel Rochman

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