Well, this has certainly been a long time coming. I intended to add Melody to my AG historical reviews years ago, but I never got around to finishing her mystery. And because I never finished Melody, I also never finished Julie, so I have not one but two AG mysteries I've never read! Time to fix that.
I just finished rereading No Ordinary Sound. It's definitely a powerful book and it made me emotional a few times. I'll do a quick cast list before moving on to the plot synopsis.
So we've got 9-year-old Melody, whose varied interests are singing, gardening, flower arranging, and cars. It's only mentioned a couple times briefly, but Melody is really into cars. Well, she IS from Detroit. Heh.
Melody's mother is a teacher and her father is a factory worker. I'm not sure what exactly he does. He was a really good mechanic as part of the Tuskegee Airmen, but even in 1964 Detroit, better jobs for black people aren't plentiful.
Melody's grandmother was a singer, who now teaches piano and voice lessons. Her grandfather owns a flower shop.
Melody has three older siblings. Yvonne is in college down in Tuskegee, where both her parents went. Dwayne is supposed to go to college but wants to pursue a Motown career. Lila is the family scholar. She's good at math, science, reading and basically anything academic.
Then there are Melody's cousins, two parents and their daughter. The mother Tish owns a salon and her husband Charles is a pharmacist. Thier daughter Val is Melody's best friend.
Her other best friend is named Sharon. Then we've got her rival Diane, who also sings.
We've basically got most of the book featuring the daily life of this extended family. Melody gets a solo in the fall church program. Yvonne comes home for the summer and is refused a job at the bank because she's black, so badass Melody marches in and closes her account, saying exactly why she's doing it. Yvonne ends up kicking ass in sales at their grandfather's flower shop, so he hires her. Dwayne struggles with his parents wanting him to go to college when he has Motown opportunities. He moves out right before an audition, which his group does well enough at to go out on tour. Melody's cousins move to Detroit from Birmingham due to all the race-based violence.
There are several incidents of racism throughout the book. Yvonne's failure to get hired at the bank, as I mentioned. Dwayne and Melody being profiled when they're just trying to shop. The cousins having trouble finding a home to buy because of racists in the neighborhoods. All of the men struggle with job-based racism.
Inspired by MLK, who she got to hear speak, Melody finally figures out which song to sing for the fall program. She practices and earns the respect of Diane, her now former rival and new friend.
Sadly, then the Birmingham church bombing happens, and Melody is profoundly affected by this incident and the death of four little girls. Medically, it would have to be coincidence, but she develops laryngitis the same day she learns of the bombing. After she recovers, she freezes on the steps of her church and can't go inside. She loses her voice again, not from medical reasons, but because she's so utterly freaked out by the bombing that she's terrified of her own church and overwhelmed by her feelings.
With the help of her friends and family, Melody regains her voice and is able to sing for the four little girls who no longer can.
I really enjoyed this book and all of the characters. It can be hard to read at times, but that is how historical things are. It's important to tell these stories and not shy away from the truth, in hopes that someday we'll be better. I really wish I could say things were a lot better now than in 1964, but the same problems still exist in ever-shifting forms and that's what makes these stories hard for me sometimes.
Melody's second volume is mostly more light-hearted. On her New Year's Day tenth birthday, the pastor encourages his congregation to help make positive changes in their community in the new year. Melody eventually decides to help clean up her neighborhood park. She and some of the other kids form a Junior Block Club and set to work on their project, which takes up most of the book.
Val's family finally gets a house.
Everyone participates in a protest against the store that profiled Dwayne and Melody in the first book.
Melody sings backup for her brother on his first song to be recorded on vinyl.
Melody, her mother and grandfather, and Val all take a trip to Alabama to visit the old family farm, which Melody has never seen. It's mostly gone, but there are memories. Then they visit her grandfather's older sister and it's there that they learn Yvonne has been arrested. She's been working with the Freedom Summer campaign to help black people get their chance to vote. Naturally, groups like the KKK don't like that. Three students were murdered and the book references that incident, though they're still missing in the events of the book. It's mentioned in the notes at the end though. Yvonne broke her wrist during the arrest, but her mother and grandfather got her out of jail. She doesn't want to stop working for the cause though, so she'll be getting right back to it.
This one was good, too, but not the emotional roller coaster of the first book.
I really want to like this. I do and I don't from different points of view.
Melody accompanies Val and Tish to a meeting of the Fair Housing Committee on Belle Isle, a big island in the Detroit River. There she meets Leah Roth, a 14-year-old Jewish girl whose mother is also on the committee and friends with Tish. Melody is instantly wowed by Leah because she's very fashionable, but she's also nice. Val isn't a fan, though she won't say why.
Melody starts a friendship with Leah, though it causes a rift between her and Val. Val won't ever give a concrete reason as to why she doesn't like Leah. Her excuses have a million holes. I think it's basically because she doesn't want to share Melody, but she already shares Melody with Sharon and Diane, so what's one more person? The whole Val doesn't like Leah plotline was pretty weak.
Melody meets Leah's grandfather, a Polish botanist who was trapped in the ghettoes during the Nazi invasion. He managed to get to the US with a clipping of a rare lady's slipper orchid, but his ill treatment ruined his health forever. He's only 68 but he isn't doing very well, and Leah is very upset about his health. She's found a doctor in New York who might be able to treat him, but it's expensive and her grandfather isn't willing to try.
There's a flower show at the conservatory on Belle Isle and Melody's grandfather is taking part. The guy in charge comes across as racist, so of course when some rare orchids are stolen, this asshole points the police to Melody's grandfather because he'd caught the two of them in the orchid room and been pissed about it.
Melody and Val go to the party that night determined to look for clues to clear Poppa's name. Leah and her grandfather are also in attendance, because he's giving a talk about orchids. He's brought his very rare orchid and Leah is all worked up about it. She ends up knocking it over, the conservatory guy tries to rescue it, another guy tries to steal it, and both Leah and Melody try to stop him. Everyone gets carted off to the police station, where Leah's story comes out. The thief is related to the man that helped Leah's grandfather get to the US with the rare orchid. He's an unscrupulous plant dealer. He sees how Leah cares about her grandfather's help and it's him that shows her the article about the doctor in New York, trying to get her to help him steal orchids so they can split the profits. She assisted him in the theft of the first ones from the conservatory, but she tried to stop him from stealing the lady's slipper. Her grandfather basically tells her he's lived a full life and he's ready when the time comes, so she needs to accept it. Melody's grandfather's name is cleared.
From a character standpoint, I really liked this. Leah is likeable when she's not being a thief. Her grandfather is awesome. I liked how they told about Jewish people helping black people with civil rights issues. All of that was done well. Val is out of character and her storyline really doesn't add anything to the book, so it felt unnecessary, but everything else character-wise was good.
Oh, one thing that I didn't like. This book is clearly set a year after her second book. Melody turned 10 in that book, yet she's said to be 10 here. She isn't. She's 11. Work on your math better, author.
As a mystery though, this is terrible. It was very apparent from the second time you saw this red-haired thief that he was gonna be the bad guy and that Leah was involved. Once Melody learned the grandfather's story, it was equally apparent what Leah's motivation was. It was too obvious.
Overall, I enjoyed Melody's books a lot and I'm glad I finally got around to finishing them.
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