Title: Songs for a Teenage NomadAuthor: Kim Culbertson
Pages: 204
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Publication Date: 6/1/2007
After living in twelve places in eight years with her drifting mother, fourteen-year-old Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Fearful of putting down roots anywhere, but armed with her song journal, she moves to her own sound track through a world that bounces her between the school drama crowd, a mysterious loner, and an unlikely boy who will become her first love. But it's the troubling truth she uncovers about her father that forces Calle to face the toughest choice of her young life. (Goodreads)
Calle (Call-ee) has spent most of her life bouncing around from town to town, watching her mother's many relationships fail. the only thing stable she has is her love of music, which she keeps in a song journal. Each time she moves, it is always the same -- no friends, no one to depend on, and no stability. However, things are seemingly changing for her when she moves to Andreas Bay.
This book drew me in originally because of the music aspect, I have an intense, lifelong love of music of all kinds. This ended up being a wonderful story about a girl coming into her own.
I can say that a lot of the time I had to stop and say, wait, she is only fourteen? Perhaps her character seemed a little older due to her life experiences, but most of the time I kept thinking she was around sixteen or seventeen. I think Calle handled things exceptionally well given her age and all the things she had been through, not to mention the things she would end up facing.
In Andreas Bay, Calle finds some things that she thought she wouldn't. Here, she makes some true friends and discovers that maybe she isn't completely alone in dealing with the pains of the world.
Although it was kind of short, it was paced well and there was plenty of emotion in it. Calle had to deal with some issues typical for a girl her age, the whole high school scene with friends and love, etc. but she also had to deal with things that she really shouldn't have with watching her mother go through so many relationships and then having to swallow not knowing her father or anything about him.
In Songs for a Teenage Nomad we get to see Calle grow and unravel some of the mysteries of her life and grow in the process. There were times I smiled, times I worried, and even times I teared up. It will pull at your heart for sure. It was a great read and I think others will enjoy it as well.
On another note, I would like to say I found this little treasure at Amazon for $0.99 for my Kindle. This is the link to it.
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