Bound To Stay Bound

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 Lost songs
 Author: Cooney, Caroline B.

 Publisher:  Delacorte Press (2011)

 Classification: Fiction
 Physical Description: 251 p.,  21 cm.

 BTSB No: 240668 ISBN: 9780385739665
 Ages: 12-16 Grades: 7-11

 Subjects:
 Interpersonal relations -- Fiction
 Folk songs -- Fiction
 African Americans -- Fiction
 High schools -- Fiction

Price: $6.50

Summary:
Lutie treasures songs written by her ancestor and does not want to share them, but they help her learn about her absent mother and connect with fellow students.

Accelerated Reader Information:
   Interest Level: UG
   Reading Level: 4.70
   Points: 9.0   Quiz: 147170
Reading Counts Information:
   Interest Level: 9-12
   Reading Level: 5.20
   Points: 16.0   Quiz: 55754

Common Core Standards 
   Grade 6 → Reading → RL Literature → 6.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
   Grade 6 → Reading → CCR College & Career Readiness Anchor Standards fo
   Grade 7 → Reading → RL Literature → 7.RL Key Ideas & Details
   Grade 7 → Reading → RL Literature → 7.RL Range of Reading & LEvel of Text Complexity
   Grade 7 → Reading → RL Literature → 7.RL Craft & Structure
   Grade 8 → Reading → RL Literature → 8.RL Key Ideas & Details
   Grade 8 → Reading → RL Literature → 8.RL Craft & Structure
   Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity

Reviews:
   School Library Journal (02/01/12)
   Booklist (12/01/11)
 The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (01/12)

Full Text Reviews:

Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2012 A multifaceted narrative focalizes through four different teens at the same South Carolina high school. There’s Lutie, a gifted vocalist and star student haunted by her drug-addict mother; Doria, a transplanted New Englander more comfortable with her music than her new classmates; Kelvin, Lutie’s childhood friend, Doria’s crush, and the guy liked by everybody; and Train, once tight with Lutie and Kelvin, now a swaggering thug in the sway of his jailbird older brother. Plot strands, too, are multiple: a music teacher and visiting professor are trying to convince Lutie to share the songs created by her great-grandmother, an impoverished laundress; Doria’s friend-seeking involvement in the church youth group brings her into closer contact with Lutie; Train’s desire to make his criminal name leads him to focus on the vulnerable Doria. This is rich with plot, character, and emotion, and it’s all carefully combined into a highly readable tale that touches on family secrets and loyalty, the wonder of music, the strength of community, and the benediction of a fresh start. The book credibly captures the complexities of a small town with shifting social categories based on history, economics, class, neighborhood, and race: in a subtle touch, Doria automatically notes when other people are black, while the African-American protagonists don’t; Lutie still retains connections to the old and disadvantaged African-American neighborhood where she grew up despite now living in a better off part of town. Cooney offers an eloquent tribute to the possibilities of music and religion, focusing on their power to bring people together and strengthen the community as well as the individual. That’s a lofty message, but the book’s firm focus on personal and everyday teen reality ensures that readers will stay with the story every step of the way, and they may well reconsider their own familial legacies and community possibilities. DS - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 12/01/2011 Sixteen-year-old Lutie Palmer lives with her aunts and, though she still misses her grandmother MeeMaw (who died when Lutie was 12), she finds solace in MeeMaw’s songs—a family legacy Lutie, a gifted singer, holds dear. But when Lutie is pressured to share her songs publicly, difficulties arise, and she learns a painful truth about her absentee, drug-addicted mother. Meanwhile, the new choir accompanist (and new student) is lonely and trying to adjust to southern life, while streetwise classmate Train Greene faces some tough times of his own. Increasingly, their lives begin to intersect and impact one another, bringing new understandings, including how unconditional love, compassion—and song—can comfort and unite. Alternating narratives lend intimacy and depth to the characters and plot, and “lost songs”—about having faith and hope in order to persevere through trying times—are interspersed throughout. While religious themes are prominent, the absorbing novel also explores issues of relationship complexities, forgiveness, and the importance of a supportive community. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2012 Gr 7–10—Lutie is an intelligent South Carolinian teenager with a drug-addicted mother and a decision to make: she has been asked to make public the family folk songs passed down by her great-great-grandmother, a slave, and never written down. Lutie is one of four teen central characters of different races featured. The story is about the ways they come together, uniting through mutual realizations of the importance of their Christian faith, personal responsibilities, and redemption through community involvement. While the teens are mildly relatable, Cooney saves her vibrant imagery for the larger-than-life pastor Miss Veola, her pink church, and the run-down neighborhood in which she ministers. Some may find Cooney's depictions of Southern African American life disingenuous, but fans will recognize her style: characters who ponder deep thoughts in simple phrases and an ending that is neatly packaged. Actual difficulties raised by cultural and racial differences, the painful realities of drug addiction and urban poverty, and the rigors required for musical accomplishment are oversimplified, and the Christian element is so strong as to be proselytizing.—Rhona Campbell, formerly at Washington, DC Public Library - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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