Customer Reviews

A String in the Harp

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"A String in the Harp" is one of the worthy fantasy books that is often overlooked, as it was published first in the 1970s and dips into complicated mythology that casual readers won't be able to absorb. However, it's an exceptional book for people who have read the Prydain Chronicles and The Dark is Rising sequence, and who are craving more.

Since the death of their mother, the three Morgan children have become increasingly divided from their father David. Peter and Becky live with him in an isolated town in Wales, while Jen lives in the United States with her aunt. When Jen arrives on a vacation, she finds David distant and uncommunicative, and Peter sullen and angry. Despite the isolation of the town, Jen tries her hardest to enjoy it, and to keep her family from fragmenting further.

Then Peter finds a harp tuning key, and begins getting glimpses of the past -- and of the legendary bard Taliesin. He becomes increasingly drawn to his visions of the past, and even vanishes in an attempt to uncover more about Taliesin. Jen tries to deny that the key is magical, but as Peter falls more and more under the key's spell, the three children must find out what they need to do for it.

Bond weaves Welsh mythology and modern-day dilemmas together in a way that very few authors can. On one hand, we have the Morgan kids with their present-day actions -- hanging out with some Welsh friends, seeking a sheep-killer (who turns out to be connected to the key), and Jen trying to learn how to cook. She also does a good job of giving the readers a view of a fast-dying way of life in Wales, though these sections stretch on a little too long. But Bond outdoes herself in the glimpses of the past, in which the language becomes dreamy and evocative. In some areas it becomes reminiscent of Susan Cooper at her finest moments.

People who want their fantasy generic, cute and mindless will not like "String." Nothing in the Welsh mythos is dumbed down for the audience, and younger kids will probably have difficulty keeping some of the legends straight. However, if readers handled other mythologically-oriented books, they will have no trouble with this one.

Peter's desperate attachment to the key is excellently-written, as is his resentment towards his father for stranding him in a tiny Welsh town. Jen and Becky are a little less prominent, as they are not seeing the past, but Jen's unswerving assertions that Peter is lying will annoy readers. David also will initially annoy readers, because of his unwillingness to consider his children's emotions, but becomes more sympathetic toward the end of the book. The Welsh characters, with the exception of the revolting Dr. Owen, don't elicit as much reaction as the American ones, but the character of Taliesin manages to fascinate without even appearing much. He's a pervasive presence throughout the book.

Fans of "The Dark is Rising" and Lloyd Alexander will thoroughly enjoy "String in the Harp," a dreamy tale of magic, myth and history.

When fourteen-year-old Jen leaves her home in Massachusetts to visit her father, brother, and sister in Wales, she never expects anything but a normal winter break from school. As it turns out, her brother Peter has become unusually moody--he misses Massachusetts, his friends, his dead mother, his "real" house, and just about anything he can think of to complain to his father about. Finally, Peter comes to Jen with some ridiculous story about an old harp's tuning key that used to belong to the bard Taliesin. He tells her that it "sings" to him (it shows him stories with harp songs about its former owner)--a story only their ten-year-old sister Becky will believe. The book goes on to tell of Taliesin's life intertwined with Peter's and Jen's own and how he comes to terms with the key itself. Besides having a terrific plot, this book relates to the reader some fantastic imagery of a tiny village in Wales. This story is, I think, a masterpiece, and one of the best books I've read is such a long time. Once in a while you find an old book on your shelf, read it, and realize that some books don't win awards for no reason. This is one of those times.

I recently read the book, "A String In The Harp," By Nancy Bond. I thought that it was a great book all round. The book tells the story of a family whos life has been torn apart by their Mother's death. 15 year old Jen Morgan has been left in Amherst, to continue with her high school education while her family travles to a small Welsh villege for a year while her father teaches at a univercity. Jen visets her family over Christmas vacation, and ends up staying the rest of the year, because she finds out that their is a lot going on in her family, and that it is important for them all to be together. The story folcuses on her younger brother Peter, who has found a harp key which he claims belongs to a sixth century Welsh bard. At first Jen doesn't want to believe Peter's wild stories about the key, and the power that it exerts over him, but eventually she has no choice, but to accept it's existence. On top of all this, Jen decides to learn how to keep house, and try to act as a Mother to her two younger siblings. In this book Nancy Bond does a great job of weaving the life of a school boy from Amherst, and that of a Welsh bard together, to tell an extremely suspensful, gripping story. I would reccomend this book to any one who likes a good read!

A String In The Harp is a really good read. I am not exactly your book-worm type of gal, but I could barely take my eyes off this book. Its very creative and imaginative. A short summary of the book: The Morgan family's mom dies. They move to a foreign country leaving the oldest sister behind with relatives. The family just falls apart. When word comes that the sister (Jen) will be coming to visit, everyone hopes things will change. Jen comes and things only get worse. When Peter (the brother) finds a harp key, life changes from there. I don't want to give the ending away so you will just have to read it yourself. The book is way better than I expected, I hope you'll give it a try.

I'll admit; I'm not sure I really "got" this book. Though it's beautifully written, with strong characterization for its child protagonists and plenty of insight into the subjects that it raised, it wasn't what I was expecting, and as such, ended up being a tad disappointing.

It's been over a year since their mother's death, but the Morgan siblings are still suffering from the loss and struggling with the task of getting on with their lives. Their father David has accepted a temporary teaching job in Wales, taking twelve-year-old Peter and ten-year-old Becky with him, and leaving fifteen-year-old Jen in America to finish her studies. The book begins with Jen flying out to be with her family over Christmas, only to find that her father is preoccupied by his work, leaving her two younger siblings virtually parentless.

Peter in particular is a source of worry; his desperate homesickness makes him sullen and hostile, and he's continually picking fights with his father. But then Peter tells Jen that he's found a strange artifact on the shore: an ancient harp key that reveals scenes from the distant past. Specifically, Peter is privy to the life of the legendary bard Taliesin as he grows from child to man, and becomes increasingly alarmed when various members of the community report strange phenomena in the surrounding countryside. It would appear that the past is beginning to encroach on the present...

Well, that sounds like an interesting idea for a story - but ultimately, that's not what this book is about. "A String in the Harp" is more family drama than fantasy adventure, and the time-travelling aspect of the story barely intrudes on the "real world" narrative. Throughout the story we see the past leech into the present (a group of hunters shoot a wolf, there are strange lights spotted on the moorlands), but nothing really comes of these developments.

Instead, the secret that the siblings share draws them closer together, motivates them into researching the history and mythology of Wales, and eventually helps them repair their relationship with their father. How? I'm not totally sure. Throughout the novel there are swaths of pages devoted to the children going on long walks through the countryside, befriending their neighbors, visiting the city, doing their homework, and (in Jen's case) learning the art of housekeeping. To say the pacing is slow is an understatement.

In the third act (or thereabouts) a new character is introduced: a rather creepy museum curator called Doctor Owen who suspects that Peter has discovered an archeological treasure and begins to pressure the children to give it up. Again, this development isn't particularly urgent; the curator invites himself over for dinner, makes some heavy-handed remarks, and then leaves empty-handed. Later Peter visits his office to inform him that the key is no longer in his possession and...that's it.

Essentially, the fantasy element of the harp key is largely window-dressing, for this is a story about a broken family trying to fix itself. Yet even taking that into account, I was often frustrated at the way the Morgan family operated. Patriarch David Morgan in particular is a bit of a nitwit. After his wife's death he removes his two youngest children from their home and friends, takes them to a foreign country to enroll them in a Welsh school for a year, and separates them from their eldest sibling who is left by herself in America to complete her studies. What parent with half a brain cell would do this to his kids after such a traumatic experience?

Later, when Doctor Owen begins to sniff about, David's children tell him about the uneasiness that they feel when they're around the man. David responds to this by inviting the man to his house and subjecting his kids to the man's intrusive questions about the key. Sure, David backs up the children's decision to withhold information, but it's rather bizarre that he put them in that situation in the first place, especially when he has already told them: "I'm no more anxious to have Doctor Owen come here than you are, but we do owe him the courtesy to hear him at least."

Um...no you don't, especially not if your kids are borderline-frightened of him. For a book that has the Morgan family dynamic at its heart, too often their father's choices are undermined by the necessities of the plot.

I feel like a black sheep for not enjoying "A String in the Harp". Not only is it highly recommended by other reviewers, but the cover lists the awards that it's garnered: not only is it a Newbery Honor Book, but it's a Horn Book Honor Book and an American Library Association Notable Children's Book (and there's more). Like another reviewer said, books don't win awards for no reason. It's a mature story and a worthy one, and had I known at the start of the book that this was a family drama instead of a time-slip adventure, I may have enjoyed it more. Hopefully this review will provide you with insight into the content of the story, for the blurb and cover art are somewhat misleading.

I loved this book the first time I read it years ago. After reading the library copy, I bought the hardcover book, and, more recently, the unabridged audio version. I love listening to the audio version and especially hearing Welsh words spoken. Even after several listenings, I am ready to listen again. This recent paperback purchase was a gift to the child of a friend. The magical flows together and mixes delightfully with everyday reality in this utterly charming book. Celtic mythology, a taste of the mystery of Wales, an experience of the timelessness of time--all blend seamlessly in this story of adjustment to loss and change as each of the main characters comes of age! I highly reccommend it!

A Newbery Honor book from the late 70s, I picked it up at a library sale because of that Newbery silver seal on the front. It's a book that develops slowly, and is worth the patience to sustain reading it. The Morgan family is facing two enormous changes, the loss of the mother in an auto accident, and the adjustment to Wales after the grieving father moves them there from Amherst. The unhurried development paves the way for very well-constructed characters, even the ones outside the focal Morgan family. The Morgans are clear, three dimensional characters living in a novel setting, the coast of Wales, the descriptions of which also benefit from the author's patient, clear depictions. The fantasy aspect involves the discovery of a harp key by the middle child of the Morgans, the son Peter. The key has a profound effect, providing Peter with access to events in Welsh history. He doesn't time travel, but Bond cleverly gives him access in a kind of time flow, where, not only can he see the past, but there are times when it exchanges itself with the present enough to be evident to others, too. As much fun as all this time and legend interaction is, the real heart of the book involves the adapting to the two big changes, how the family begins in Wales in full-fledged grieving which takes different forms in different family members, and slowly blends the growing out of it and the growing into this new place in warm, believable, caring ways.

Published in 1976, A String in the Harp tells the story of Jen, Peter, Becky, and David Morgan. The Morgan family has been separated by their mother's death and their father's decision to take a university teaching job in Wales, taking his two youngest children along. The book opens with Jen traveling to visit her family for the first time since the move. During her visit, her brother, Peter, finds a harp tuning key. This key, and the visions that it brings, will lead the family down an unexpected road in the months to come.
This book is set in the same area, and to some extent concerned with the same mythology, as the last two books in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence. In its address of both family issues and Welsh mythology, A String in the Harp is an accurate and insightful work. Nancy Bond has painted the landscape of her tale with vibrant, true to life detail.

This is one of those books you just don't want to put down until you find out what happens. I almost didn't want it to end! The descriptions make you feel like you're actually there in Wales, though sometimes they stretch on a bit too long. The charactors are strong and easy to relate to. In fact, after I was finished I found myself missing them almost! This is definatly a book you have to think about, though, and you should only read it if you really have time to sit down and concentrate. Casual skimming just doesn't work with this one. Because of this it might give younger readers a bit of trouble, but overal it's not a problem. I highly recommend this to anyone who's tired of the mainstream fantasy and wants something a bit different!

I just read this in school, and thought it was really good. It made me want to learn more about Welsh bards, and Wales in general. It was a very complete story and didn't let you down.