Echo by vet­er­an author Pam Muñoz Ryan unique­ly weaves in a sense of won­der with a musi­cal twist while explor­ing hard­ships of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. A com­bi­na­tion of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion and mag­i­cal real­ism, the nov­el is bro­ken up into three dis­tinct sto­ries linked by a mag­i­cal har­mon­i­ca. As expect­ed, Muñoz Ryan deliv­ers an engag­ing sto­ry with unique char­ac­ters, offer­ing read­ers an emo­tion­al jour­ney through their lives.

In the brief pro­logue, we meet Otto. Lost in the for­est, he stum­bles across a trio of enchant­i­ng sis­ters who bestow upon him a mag­i­cal har­mon­i­ca. Years lat­er, the very same mag­i­cal instru­ment finds its way into the hands of three musi­cal­ly inclined kids in very dif­fer­ent but all very try­ing situations.

First there is Friedrich, a Ger­man boy deal­ing with the effects of the Nazi regime and the ten­sion it cre­ates with­in his own fam­i­ly. The next sto­ry depicts Mike, a Depres­sion-era orphan with a fierce desire to cre­ate a future for him­self and his lit­tle broth­er. Last is the sto­ry of Ivy, a Cal­i­for­nia girl and daugh­ter of a farm work­er who expe­ri­ences racism due to her Mex­i­can her­itage as she wit­ness­es the unjust treat­ment of Japan­ese Amer­i­cans in her new neigh­bor­hood. Muñoz Ryan pro­vides insight into some of the major his­tor­i­cal occur­rences of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry includ­ing World War II, the bomb­ing of Pearl Har­bor, and Japan­ese intern­ment camps. Ulti­mate­ly, the book depicts the impor­tance of famil­ial bonds and the neces­si­ty of hope even dur­ing the dark­est of times. The full-cir­cle end­ing is a bit too coin­ci­den­tal but does deliv­er a pos­i­tive con­trast to the heav­ier themes of the nov­el and will appeal to young readers.

Although the length of Echo may appear daunt­ing for mid­dle grade fic­tion, the tril­o­gy-style for­mat enables read­ers to eas­i­ly break the nov­el down into siz­able chunks.

The Jew­ish con­tent in Echo is lim­it­ed. It con­sists of a few ref­er­ences to con­cen­tra­tion camps and the mis­treat­ment of Jews dur­ing the war. How­ev­er, it is still a wor­thy read of out­stand­ing lit­er­ary qual­i­ty and is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed for ages 10 – 14.