This collection brings together texts that explore the beauty and often redemptive power of music, from classical compositions in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus and Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, to gospel songs and spirituals in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Forgiveness, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Revenge, Identity: Mental Health, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Relationships: Family, Self Discovery, Values/Ideas: Fame, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Good & Evil, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Order & Chaos, Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies
Tags Romance, Horror / Thriller / Suspense Fiction, Mystery / Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Forgiveness, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Hate & Anger, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt
Tags Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Romance, Disability, Bullying, Children's Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2015
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Realistic Fiction, Travel Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Mental Illness
David Arnold’s 2015 debut novel, Mosquitoland, is a coming-of-age story that’s intended for a young adult audience. The novel was one of NPR’s and Amazon’s best books of 2015. This guide refers to the 2015 Penguin Random House edition. Plot SummaryThe story follows 16-year-old Mary Iris Malone, also referred to as Mim, as she travels alone from Jackson, Mississippi, to Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly before her journey, her parents divorced, and her father remarried and moved... Read Mosquitoland Summary
Publication year 1972
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Historical Fiction, Race / Racism, Education, Education, American Literature, History: World, Classic Fiction
Published in 1973, Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo is a novel that decenters the Westernized, Judeo-Christian historical perspective and compels the reader to see history through a more Afrocentric lens. The novel incorporates nontraditional storytelling techniques such as linear distortion, footnotes, photographs, and charts. It is often affiliated with postmodernism and Afrofuturism.The story begins in 1920. There is an outbreak of Jes Grew, which is spreading toward Harlem, where the novel is primarily set. Those who... Read Mumbo Jumbo Summary
Publication year 2007
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music, Natural World: Nurture v. Nature, Identity: Mental Health, Emotions/Behavior: Memory
Tags Music, Science / Nature, Psychology, Health / Medicine, Psychology
Publication year 1816
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Order & Chaos
Tags Lyric Poem, Science / Nature, Romanticism / Romantic Period
Publication year 2023
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Identity: Femininity, Values/Ideas: Art, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Values/Ideas: Fame, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies
Tags Jewish Literature, History: World, Biography, Music, Inspirational
Publication year 2014
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Relationships: Family, Society: Class, Society: Politics & Government, Values/Ideas: Art, Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Historical Fiction, Irish Literature, Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Depression / Suicide
Written by Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster (2014) is a historical novel that follows the titular character, a young woman who is struggling to raise her four young children, process her grief, and reinvent her life after her husband passes away. In 2015, the novel won the Hawthornden Prize, and it has also received numerous other prestigious award nominations. Throughout his career, Colm Tóibín has alternated between fiction and non-fiction, producing works such as Brooklyn (2009), which... Read Nora Webster Summary
Publication year 2006
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children's Literature, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction, Music, Humor
The novel opens on Alex choosing to get drunk and drive to his father’s in order to get revenge. Alex’s parents are recently divorced after his father starts to date Alex’s third-grade teacher. After crashing his mother’s car into a garden gnome, a very drunk Alex is taken into the police station and then transferred to the hospital with a concussion and alcohol poisoning. Alex’s mother grounds him for a month, until a judge punishes... Read Notes From The Midnight Driver Summary
Publication year 1930
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music, Life/Time: Coming of Age
Tags Classic Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Auto/Biographical Fiction, History: U.S., Harlem Renaissance, Race / Racism, American Literature, History: World, Historical Fiction
Published in 1930, near the end of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes's Not Without Laughter is a coming-of-age narrative about James "Sandy" Rogers, an African-American boy from the small Kansas town of Stanton. Loosely based on Hughes's own childhood in Kansas, the novel traces the challenges of African-American life in the Midwest during the years leading up to World War I. The novel opens with a cyclone that rips the porch from the house of... Read Not Without Laughter Summary
Publication year 1820
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Gratitude, Emotions/Behavior: Joy, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Identity: Femininity, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality
Tags Classic Fiction
Publication year 1994
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Magical Realism, Latin American Literature, Historical Fiction, Romance, Classic Fiction
Set in the seaport city of Santa María de Antigua, in colonial Spanish Colombia, at the end of the 18th century, Gabriel García Márquez'snovel Of Love and Other Demons tells the tragic story of Sierva María de Todos Los Ángeles. The only daughter of the American-born Marquis de Casalduero, Sierva lives with her father the Marquis, and her mother, Bernarda, in a decaying mansion.Neither parent takes an interest in their daughter, so she's raised by... Read Of Love And Other Demons Summary
Publication year 2008
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Gratitude, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Identity: Indigenous, Identity: Language, Natural World: Animals, Natural World: Flora/plants, Natural World: Place, Self Discovery, Society: Colonialism, Society: Community, Society: Education, Society: Nation, Values/Ideas: Art, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Values/Ideas: Equality, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Justice & Injustice, Values/Ideas: Literature, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies
Tags History: World, Biography
Publication year 8
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Regret, Identity: Mental Health, Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Life/Time: The Past, Natural World: Environment, Natural World: Place, Values/Ideas: Fate, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Joy, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Identity: Disability, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Trust & Doubt, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Art, Natural World: Animals, Natural World: Appearance & Reality
Tags Realistic Fiction, Disability, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Children's Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2010
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Identity: Gender, Values/Ideas: Music, Identity: Disability
Tags Children's Literature, Realistic Fiction, Gender / Feminism, Disability, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction
Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind, based on her own experiences parenting a child with a disability, is a New York Times best-selling novel told from the first-person perspective of 10-year-old Melody Brooks. Melody is a fifth-grade girl who, due to cerebral palsy, is unable to communicate verbally and uses a wheelchair. The challenges and prejudice that Melody encounters provide a more intimate and personal view of the lives of people with disabilities. Atheneum Books... Read Out of My Mind Summary
Publication year 1997
Genre Novel/Book in Verse, Fiction
Themes Life/Time: Mortality & Death, Society: Class, Natural World: Place, Natural World: Climate, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Identity: Disability, Relationships: Siblings, Society: Community, Emotions/Behavior: Forgiveness, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Society: Economics, Values/Ideas: Music, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Relationships: Mothers, Values/Ideas: Art, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Emotions/Behavior: Hope, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Natural World: Animals, Relationships: Fathers, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Natural World: Food, Society: Education
Tags Historical Fiction, Children's Literature, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Agriculture, History: U.S., Great Depression, Education, Education, History: World, Classic Fiction
Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust is a historical middle-grade novel in verse first published in 1997. Through 110 first-person free verse poems, the narrative tells the story of two years in the life of Billie Jo Kelby, young daughter of a struggling farming family in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the mid-1930s. After a tragic accident results in the death of Billie Jo’s mother and baby brother, she and her father must find a way... Read Out of the Dust Summary
Publication year 2008
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Relationships: Friendship, Values/Ideas: Music
Tags Realistic Fiction, Mystery / Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance, Action / Adventure
John Green’s Paper Towns is a coming-of-age story that follows the lives of two childhood friends, the reserved Quentin Jacobsen and the legendary Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin says that every human being is graced with one miracle in their lifetime. His miracle is living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. He has spent a lifetime obsessing over her, though their friendship has cooled over the years. At the start of the novel, they are in... Read Paper Towns Summary
Publication year 1996
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Values/Ideas: Art, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Values/Ideas: Equality, Values/Ideas: Music, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Emotions/Behavior: Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Identity: Gender, Identity: Femininity
Tags Gender / Feminism, Race / Racism, Black Lives Matter
Publication year 1915
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies, Values/Ideas: Music, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Life/Time: Midlife
Tags Poetry: Dramatic Poem, Narrative / Epic Poem, Modernism, British Literature, American Literature, Relationships, Love / Sexuality, Class, Classic Fiction