The Lost Songs

February 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-Lutie is an intelligent South Carolinian teenager with a drug-addicted mother and a decision to make: she has been asked to make public the family folk songs passed down by her great-great-grandmother, a slave, and never written down. Lutie is one of four teen central characters of different races featured. The story is about the ways they come together, uniting through mutual realizations of the importance of their Christian faith, personal responsibilities, and redemption through community involvement. While the teens are mildly relatable, Cooney saves her vibrant imagery for the larger-than-life pastor Miss Veola, her pink church, and the run-down neighborhood in which she ministers. Some may find Cooney's depictions of Southern African American life disingenuous, but fans will recognize her style: characters who ponder deep thoughts in simple phrases and an ending that is neatly packaged. Actual difficulties raised by cultural and racial differences, the painful realities of drug addiction and urban poverty, and the rigors required for musical accomplishment are oversimplified, and the Christian element is so strong as to be proselytizing.-Rhona Campbell, formerly at Washington, DC Public Library

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 Sixteen-year-old Lutie Palmer lives with her aunts and, though she still misses her grandmother MeeMaw (who died when Lutie was 12), she finds solace in MeeMaw's songsa family legacy Lutie, a gifted singer, holds dear. But when Lutie is pressured to share her songs publicly, difficulties arise, and she learns a painful truth about her absentee, drug-addicted mother. Meanwhile, the new choir accompanist (and new student) is lonely and trying to adjust to southern life, while streetwise classmate Train Greene faces some tough times of his own. Increasingly, their lives begin to intersect and impact one another, bringing new understandings, including how unconditional love, compassionand songcan comfort and unite. Alternating narratives lend intimacy and depth to the characters and plot, and lost songs about having faith and hope in order to persevere through trying timesare interspersed throughout. While religious themes are prominent, the absorbing novel also explores issues of relationship complexities, forgiveness, and the importance of a supportive community.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)