A Little Wanting Song

Title: A Little Wanting Song
Author: Cath Crowley
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: Ebook

Summary:

A summer of friendship, romance, and songs in major chords. . . .

CHARLIE DUSKIN loves music, and she knows she's good at it. But she only sings when she's alone, on the moonlit porch or in the back room at Old Gus's Secondhand Record and CD Store. Charlie's mom and grandmother have both died, and this summer she's visiting her grandpa in the country, surrounded by ghosts and grieving family, and serving burgers to the local kids at the milk bar. She's got her iPod, her guitar, and all her recording equipment, but she wants more: A friend. A dad who notices her. The chance to show Dave Robbie that she's not entirely unspectacular.

ROSE BUTLER lives next door to Charlie's grandfather and spends her days watching cars pass on the freeway and hanging out with her troublemaker boyfriend. She loves Luke but can't wait to leave their small country town. And she's figured out a way: she's won a scholarship to a science school in the city, and now she has to convince her parents to let her go. This is where Charlie comes in. Charlie, who lives in the city, and whom Rose has ignored for years. Charlie, who just might be Rose's ticket out.

Told in alternating voices and filled with music, friendship, and romance, Charlie and Rose's "little wanting song" is about the kind of longing that begins as a heavy ache but ultimately makes us feel hopeful and wonderfully alive.

Review:

A Little Wanting Song

It’s just a little wanting song
It won’t go on for all that long
Just long enough to say
How much I’m wishing for
Just a little more

Charlie Duskin only had one friend named Dahlia. Her mother died when she was nine years old. She could play guitar, write songs, and sing. Dahlia, Charlie's mother, and grandmother were the only ones who ever heard her sing. She didn't want other people to know she could.

Rose Butler's wish was to ever leave the town. She wanted to see the world. She was so smart, always craving for more knowledge. That was why she got a scholarship for this science school in the city. Her parents never wanted her to leave.

They always met every summer, when Charlie went to her grandpa's house who was next door to Rose's. They never talked to each other; Rose was always with her two best friends, Luke, her boyfriend, and Dave. And Charlie was always outside, sitting and staring at them, hoping she'd be brave enough to say a word to them. She just didn't know that Dave also hoped for the same thing for him.

I love Crowley's Graffiti Moon, and I even always find a time to re-read it. That's why I want to read her first YA, A Little Wanting Song. Unlike Graffiti Moon, which made me laughing hard, A Little Wanting Song made me cry.

I cried when Charlie confessed that her Dad didn't care about her that much after her mother died.

I cried after finding out Charlie was befriend with two ghosts; her mother and her grandmother.

I cried when Charlie saved Dave, because she didn't want to lose someone she cared about again.

But I also laughed when Charlie cheered Dave up at the hospital. I also enjoyed the songs she wrote that were included in the book.

What about Rose? She had her own struggle. She needed Charlie just so she could be in the city, enjoying her new school. But she also didn't want to leave Luke, her boyfriend, who had always been a bad guy. To quote Rose's mother, that if Luke wanted to jump off a cliff, Rose would too as well.

It was okay, I still like Graffiti Moon better, but A Little Wanting Song was hard to miss if you like Graffiti Moon.

Slowly

So slowly, really slowly
I’m all the chords there are
So slowly, really slowly
I’m keys I never heard
So slowly, really slowly
I’m spinning song and dancing
Rising voice beneath my skin

Rating: 3.5/5