American Band

July 30, 2007
In 2004, first-time author Laine immersed herself in Elkhart, Indiana's Concord High School Marching Minutemen, a 240-plus ensemble preparing to defend its state title, and emerges with a detailed and intimate account that delves deep into the rarified world of competitive high school marching and the students, parents and teachers devoted to it. Max Jones is the band's hard-nosed director, in his final season at Concord, and just beginning to fall out of touch with his young charges; students, meanwhile, juggle social and spiritual concerns with their all-consuming commitment to the Minutemen (practicing more hours than even the football players). In the stories of a trumpeter whose mother contracts terminal cancer, a clarinetist who longs for her native California and a drum-line captain who aspires to West Point, Laine finds an intriguing sample of small-town, red-state Middle America's next generation. Her descriptions of field performances-from the earliest planning stages to their in-competition execution-are intricate, but fail to convey their power or majesty; in addition, Laine's emphasis on narrative observation over direct quotes gives the work a magazine feature feel. Still, Laine brings passion, curiosity and affection to her heartland chronicle, ideal for anyone who's ever marked time with an instrument at the ready.

August 27, 2007
In 2004, first-time author Laine immersed herself in Elkhart, Indiana's Concord High School Marching Minutemen, a 240-plus ensemble preparing to defend its state title, and emerges with a detailed and intimate account that delves deep into the rarified world of competitive high school marching and the students, parents and teachers devoted to it. Max Jones is the band's hard-nosed director, in his final season at Concord, and just beginning to fall out of touch with his young charges; students, meanwhile, juggle social and spiritual concerns with their all-consuming commitment to the Minutemen (practicing more hours than even the football players). In the stories of a trumpeter whose mother contracts terminal cancer, a clarinetist who longs for her native California and a drum-line captain who aspires to West Point, Laine finds an intriguing sample of small-town, red-state Middle America's next generation. Her descriptions of field performances-from the earliest planning stages to their in-competition execution-are intricate, but fail to convey their power or majesty; in addition, Laine's emphasis on narrative observation over direct quotes gives the work a magazine feature feel. Still, Laine brings passion, curiosity and affection to her heartland chronicle, ideal for anyone who's ever marked time with an instrument at the ready.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
Laine, a journalist and former high-school band member, chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Concord (Indiana) Marching Minutemen as they prepare for what they hope will be another winning season. Although nonfiction, the book feels like fiction. The author writes with a crisp, dramatic, visually evocative style; the characters are small-town archetypes (the much-loved band leader, the troubled teen, the young man on the verge of adulthood); and the school itself, where teachers assign their students Paradise Lost (and the kids actually read it!), feels like it comes out of some idealized 1940s movie, perhaps directed by Frank Capra. This is a traditional coming-of-age story, a tale of grit and determination and love of music, beautifully and respectfully told by an author for whom its not merely a topic but part of her identity. Readers looking for Christopher Gueststyle irony wont find it here, but Laine does manage to avoid the kind of sentimentality one might expect in a nonironic book about high-school marching bands.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)