Playing Dad's Song [Hardcover]

D. Dina Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Gus Moskowitz knows that sixth graders are too old to curl up under a quilt, but that’s the only place he can hide from the school bully, his nagging older sister, and, worst of all, his father’s death. It’s been two years since Gus’s father was killed in the World Trade Center, and Gus can’t figure out how to move on. His mother thinks he needs to do something – anything – so she rents him an oboe and signs him up for lessons with her boss’s elderly father, Mr. M. As Gus’s friendship with Mr. M. develops, so does his passion for classical music, and soon he decides to compose a song of his own, a tribute to his father. But even if Gus can find a way to wrap up his father’s life in a single song, will he ever find the courage to play it?
 
In turns playful and poignant, Playing Dad’s Song personalizes the losses at the World Trade Center in New York City by focusing on one child’s struggle with the tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6–Two years after his father perished in the World Trade Center, Gus Moskowitz is stuck in grief, making a tent of his bed quilt to block out the world. His sister and mother both try to bring him out–his sister by encouraging him to audition for the school play and his mother by arranging for him to take oboe lessons from her employers father. Its the latter strategy that is the most effective, as Gus forms a bond with Mr. M. that transcends their musical connection. Friedman addresses the boys understandable anxieties in a number of spheres: dealing with the school bully, presenting an oral report to his sixth-grade class, treading lightly around his mothers expectations, and gearing up for an audition. Through music and in composing his own songs, Gus is able to find solace and a mode of expression. The author attempts a lot in this book and she doesnt quite bring it all off. Though Gus is the narrator, readers dont become immersed in his emotional experiences–he seems to be observing his own behavior from as much of a remove as his mother or Mr. M. Even his descriptions of the music he writes are sketchy. As this is one of the first novels for middle-grade readers to emerge from the 9/11 disaster, its a shame that it doesnt dig a bit deeper into Guss inner life.–Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It has been two years since Dad was killed in the World Trade Center, but Gus Moskowitz, 11, still thinks about it every day. As he rehearses to try out for a part in the school musical, he remembers Dad on stage trying unsuccessfully to make it as a singer on Broadway. The moving family story is never reverential; as in Friedman's Holocaust novel, Escaping into the Night (2006), the characters are not idealized. Mom and Dad had separated years before, and Gus is jealous of his bossy, gifted older sister, especially when she gets a starring role in the play and he does not. But he starts oboe lessons with an elderly Holocaust survivor in the neighborhood, who teaches him both music and something about his Jewish roots, and Gus surprises himself by finding his own way to honor Dad. The honest personal drama brings the grief and loss of the terrorist attack home to the reader. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374371733
• ISBN-13: 978-0374371739
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,291,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in New York City, a place I hold close to my heart and love to write about. When I was 23 I moved with my husband to western Massachusetts because it was "a compromise between Brooklyn and the Ozarks." We currently live in a 350 year old house next door to a dairy farm with our two children, dog, and cat. I love to walk in the woods near my house, and a big impetus in writing ESCAPING INTO THE NIGHT was imagining how the woods could be home. And like Gus and Liza in PLAYING DAD'S SONG, a typical family scene at our house might be any two of us discussing what type of hot sauce to use with the sounds of oboe, violin or piano in the background.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An important new book, September 17, 2006

By 

Rob Zucker "Rob" (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Dad's Song (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down! "Playing Dad's Song" is a touching, beautiful, unsentimental story of a boy named Gus (lovable, idiosyncratic, and very real) grappling with an extraordinary challenge - how to reinvest in life following his beloved father's violent death at the World Trade Center. Young readers will recognize Gus in themselves and appreciate his sense of humor and his many struggles. As a bereavement therapist specializing in childhood and adult traumatic grief, Playing Dad's Song also rings true. This is an important book not only for the young reader but for adults, too. It will inspire parents and communities to rise above their own pain and reach out to bereaved children desperately in need of their guidance.

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, September 14, 2006

By 

Elli (Easthampton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Dad's Song (Hardcover)

I thought this book for middle grade readers was a gem. It deals with strong emotions in a totally unsentimental manner. The main character Gus is so real I could smell him - worrying about the bully at school who calls him "pickleface," hiding under his blanket to mourn his father, learning to juggle to please his sister, and - through his oboe and his teacher - discovering for himself the healing power of music.