Name: Duet
ISBN: 9780316311359

Elise Broach

The life of a musically gifted bird changes forever after she discovers the music of Chopin and helps a talented young pianist solve the mystery of a long-lost Chopin piano.

Duet

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Duet

Author: Elise Broach

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: middle grade readers, contemporary, music, biography-like

Publication Date: May 10, 2022

Genre: MG Contemporary

Age Relevance: 8+ (death, animal violence, sickness)

Explanation of Above: There is death mentioned very briefly and sometimes vaguely in this book. There is some animal violence displayed in a little bit of a cartoonish manner in the book. Sickness is also mentioned briefly.

Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books

Pages: 304

Synopsis: A musically gifted bird, a piano-playing boy, and a real-life mystery involving three artistic geniuses

Welcome to the world of Mirabelle, a young goldfinch who loves to sing and dreams of becoming a musical star. She lives with her family in the backyard of a piano teacher, and she is quickly intrigued by Mr. Starek's newest pupil. Michael Jin is an eleven-year-old keyboard sensation, but lesson after lesson, he refuses to play.  With the prestigious Chopin Festival looming at summer’s end, how will he be ready in time?  Mirabelle is responsible for Michael’s breakthrough—to her own astonishment, she sings the Chopin piece he is beginning to play at the piano. It is their first duet.

Thus begins a secret adventure that will take Mirabelle and Michael further than they ever imagined—in music, in friendship, and in solving the mystery of a lost piano that could be worth millions.  A house full of treasures holds the clues. There, Mirabelle, Michael, and their friend Emily will make an important discovery that links the great composer Frederic Chopin, the trailblazing author George Sand, and the French Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix.

A fast-paced, history-rich mystery will have young readers hooked as they root for boy and bird in this beautifully told novel, full of emotion and suspense.

Review: I liked this book alright. The book contains a bird MC, which is probably the first of that I’ve read in a bit. The book does well to show the healing power of music and it’s a good little biography-like book on Chopin, a famous pianist, Sand, an author, and Delacroix, a painter. The book is fun and has good character development. The story is simple and sweet and would make a fun bedtime story to read to little ones or a good beginner book for younger middle grade readers.

However, I did think the book was a bit too slow for me personally and it was weirdly formatted. The book is like part biography, with a lot of info dumps about Chopin, Sand, and Delacroix, and part story about this bird and her love of music, but also a side story plot with the humans and their own issues. The stories didn’t really mesh well together in my opinion and there was just a lot going on. The plot is also really loose because of this.

Verdict: It was good.
