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A Crooked Kind of Perfect

by Linda Urban

When a piano dream takes an unexpected turn

Regular price $11.50 USD
Regular price $19.17 USD Sale price $11.50 USD
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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

When a piano dream takes an unexpected turn

Zoe Elias imagines a future at the piano, but the instrument that arrives in her Michigan home is a wheezy organ. Her reluctant shift from Beethoven ambitions to organ lessons unfolds alongside a family under strain: her mother works constantly, her father is afraid to leave the house, and classmate Wheeler Diggs keeps appearing on her walk home. The annual Perform-O-Rama competition gives Zoe a concrete goal while the story examines the gap between an idealized plan and the imperfect circumstances actually available. Music, family uncertainty, and an unexpected friendship shape a coming-of-age story centered on redefining what success can look like.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Middle-grade readers interested in music and performance competitions
  • Readers who enjoy stories about family life and changing expectations
  • Fans of school-age fiction with friendship woven into everyday challenges

Themes

Music and ambitionPerfection and compromiseFamily challengesFriendshipGrowing up

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Ten-year-old Zoe Elias has perfect piano dreams. She can practically feel the keys under her flying fingers; she can hear the audience's applause. All she needs is a baby grand so she can start her lessons, and then she'll be well on her way to Carnegie Hall.

But when Dad ventures to the music store and ends up with a wheezy organ instead of a piano, Zoe's dreams hit a sour note. Learning the organ versions of old TV theme songs just isn't the same as mastering Beethoven on the piano. And the organ isn't the only part of Zoe's life in Michigan that's off-kilter, what with Mom constantly at work, Dad afraid to leave the house, and that odd boy, Wheeler Diggs, following her home from school every day.

Yet when Zoe enters the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition, she finds that life is full of surprises--and that perfection may be even better when it's just a little off center.

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