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A review by nerfherder86
Anthem by Deborah Wiles
5.0
A satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, but can be read as a standalone too. It's 1969 and 14 year old Molly is on an old school bus, driven by her 17 year old cousin Norman, crossing the country from South Carolina to California, searching for her brother, whom she hopes to convince to come home before he leaves for the draft. He left home a year ago after a fight with their father, and Molly has been suffering emotionally ever since. Along the way, she and Norman will meet a series of famous and yet-to-be-famous musicians, and have many adventures--visiting a commune among them.
I loved seeing cameos by characters from the earlier two books, in which we get to know them 5 and 7 years later, as older teens and in a different stage of their lives. (Just one example: Ray, the African-American boy from book two, shows up now as a soldier.) This book also does not have the biographical sketches that the first two did; instead, there are many real-life historical figures from the music scene of 1969 written in as people who interact with the main characters, which was cool. The teens stop by a series of famous recording studios and meet The Allman Brothers Band and even Elvis Presley among others. But there were still several sections of quotes and black and white photographs from the era to set the scene, and this time each chapter is headed by a different song from the late sixties. I've never stopped reading a book at every chapter before, but for this one I would put down the book at each new chapter and go online to listen to the song before continuing to read, which was fun! I'd really thought I knew a lot about the music of the era but there were a few whose names I didn't recognize until I heard the music, or that I did not know at all, so I learned a few new songs. A good fun "road trip" novel to hand to teens, that will show them America in an important time of our history.
I loved seeing cameos by characters from the earlier two books, in which we get to know them 5 and 7 years later, as older teens and in a different stage of their lives. (Just one example: Ray, the African-American boy from book two, shows up now as a soldier.) This book also does not have the biographical sketches that the first two did; instead, there are many real-life historical figures from the music scene of 1969 written in as people who interact with the main characters, which was cool. The teens stop by a series of famous recording studios and meet The Allman Brothers Band and even Elvis Presley among others. But there were still several sections of quotes and black and white photographs from the era to set the scene, and this time each chapter is headed by a different song from the late sixties. I've never stopped reading a book at every chapter before, but for this one I would put down the book at each new chapter and go online to listen to the song before continuing to read, which was fun! I'd really thought I knew a lot about the music of the era but there were a few whose names I didn't recognize until I heard the music, or that I did not know at all, so I learned a few new songs. A good fun "road trip" novel to hand to teens, that will show them America in an important time of our history.