The Sound of Letting Go

princessamya - The book The Sound of Letting go, is a beautiful, well written book. This book is, realistic fiction  and written by Stasia Ward Kehoe. I give this book 5 star rating because of the connections that I made with it and the main character Daisy  is kind of similar to me. I think this book  is really good and I'd read it again.   the main character, Daisy, she's a good student daughter and sister, she's got great grades and  plays her horn beautifully. She hates to blow off her friends to help her mom with her autistic  brother, Steven but she knows that her parents work to hard and deserve a little bit of freedom.  But she is soon told by her parents that Steven will be sent to a new school where he will sleep,  eat and well, live, and with Steven being her only brother she doesn't take this very well. She  starts to wear dark clothes and makeup and she's blowing off her classes. Her friends start to  worry about her, but she gets annoyed and tells them to mind there own business.

Starred review from December 9, 2013
Kehoe’s second novel-in-verse, after 2011’s Audition, movingly evokes the conflicting emotions of 17-year-old Daisy Meehan as her family teeters on the edge of falling apart due to her younger brother Steven’s violent episodes. A skilled trumpet player, Daisy has used music as a means of escape from her chaotic home life for years. However, her parents, burdened by caring for Steven, “who has morphed from challenging autistic boy/ to dangerous, nonverbal near-man,” are unable to give her the support she needs. Now that they are considering placing Steven in an institution, Daisy is torn, craving a respite from being Steven’s “third parent,” but also dreading the hole in the family his absence would leave. Daisy’s increasingly large acts of rebellion undermine her chance to cultivate a friendship with a foreign exchange student who shares her passion for jazz. Instead, she turns to an old friend, who is no stranger to family conflicts. This painfully honest portrait of a family in crisis raises questions about love, responsibility, and self-sacrifice as it moves gracefully to a difficult but realistic resolution. Ages 12–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, InkWell Management.

December 15, 2013
"Change...is scary." And family breakup is never easy. Learning that her parents plan to place her unpredictably violent autistic brother in a group home, accomplished trumpet player and responsible older sister Daisy Meehan experiments with bad behavior in her junior year in high school, trying to figure out how she feels about it. Is this freedom? Does she want it? The author of this moving story underscores her point as Daisy and exchange student Cal O'Casey work out a fictional autobiography of a newly freed slave for an AP history class. Has Daisy's family been enslaved by her autistic brother, now big and frighteningly strong but still nonverbal? Will Cal, also a talented jazz musician, be a slave to his family's business back in Ireland, or her old friend-turned-boyfriend Dave Miller to his family's straitened circumstances? What does/would 13-year-old Steven want? As she ponders the dissolution of her own family, Daisy also considers her friends' parents' divorces. Families come apart in many ways and for many reasons, but in a small New Hampshire town, most everyone knows what's going on. Written in short lines of free verse and short chapters, this accessible narrative moves along quickly and believably, ending satisfyingly without suggesting that all has been resolved. An intriguing medley of music, teen romance, high school life and serious family issues. (Fiction. 13-18)

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February 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-Daisy Meehan is the kind of daughter who makes her parents proud. She is studious, a musical prodigy, and sacrifices her social life to help out with her brother, Steven, who has a severe form of autism. But when Daisy's parents decide to institutionalize her increasingly violent brother, she revolts. She quits band and starts dating the local bad boy. Kehoe's verse novel is a raw look at conflicting emotions and the healing power of music. Readers will be immersed in Daisy's battle between relief and guilt as she comes to terms with the fact that her brother will be separated from his family. She feels trapped in the quiet, careful household created to appease Steven, and her tension is alleviated at the idea of living without her brother. Daisy must then confront her own guilt over her feelings. Kehoe explores the power of music as it heals not only Daisy's pains but calms her brother's violent outbursts. This realistic portrayal of a family nearly torn apart by crisis will interest fans of romance, music, and drama.-Tiffany Davis, Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY

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