Sadie Wyant

Echo, a young adult novel written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, is a tale about lives woven together through time and distance. The 587-page book is broken up into four sections along with a prologue and epilogue. Each section is told from a different third-person perspective. The book, though written for young adults, is historical fiction and deals with various political and ethical issues. It connects fantasy with reality in a way that is believable and draws in the reader. Echo brings together three people of different cultures and backgrounds through the common ground of music.

In the prologue of Echo, Otto, a young German boy, is playing hide-and-seek. While hiding, he goes beyond the tree line of the forest that he is not allowed to enter. In his hiding spot, Otto brings out a book that he had bought from a gypsy: The Thirteenth Harmonica of Otto Messenger. He gets distracted reading the book and ends up lost in the forest.

The story that had distracted him was about a king and a queen. The king desperately needs a son to succeed him on the throne, but his wife gives birth to a daughter. The king then commands the midwife to take the child out into the woods and abandon her, telling the queen that the baby had not survived birth. This happens twice more, with the same result. The midwife takes all three babies to her cousin, who was a witch that lived in the middle of the forest. Each time a baby is brought to the witch, she gives them a name: Eins, Zwei, and Drei – the German words for One, Two, and Three. The midwife offers a prophecy for the king’s daughters:

Your fate is not yet sealed. Even in the darkest night, a star will shine, a bell will chime, a path will be revealed. (6)

After realizing that he is lost, Otto attempts to find his way back to civilization. He instead finds three women. The women introduce themselves as Eins, Zwei, and Drei. Otto is amazed and tells them that they are characters in his book. They beg him to read them their story so that they would know what happens to them, promising in return that they would guide him safely back home. Otto continues the story, revealing a sad fate for the sisters. When the midwife attempts to bring them back to their kingdom, the witch places a curse upon them:

A messenger brought you about. One-and-the-same must bring you out. You may not leave in earthly form. Your spirits to a woodwind born. You save a soul from death’s dark door, or here you’ll languish, evermore. (18)

The sisters are cursed to stay in the same place until someone rescues them. Otto promises to help them, and they sing themselves into a harmonica that the boy has. Each of the following three sections of the novel focuses on a different character.

The first section follows Friedrich Schmidt in 1933 Germany, just as Hitler is beginning his rise to power. Friedrich is a 12-year-old boy with a strange birthmark on his face. He works in a harmonica factory and dreams of being a famous conductor. However, his father is against Hitler’s beliefs, which leads to problems for the family. This section ends in a cliff-hanger, leaving the reader to wonder what is going to happen to Friedrich on his way to rescue his father from Dachau.

The next section introduces Michael and Franklin Flannery in 1935 Pennsylvania. Mike and Frankie, as they are called, are in a boys’ home after the death of their grandmother. The home is not a welcoming place; rather, the younger boys live in one building, the other boys live in another, and all children are mistreated to some extent. Mike and Frankie both enjoy playing piano, and are adopted by a rich woman trying to get her inheritance. Mike and Frankie’s story also ends in a cliff-hanger, though this time the reader wonders about Mike’s fate after he falls out of a tree.

The third section of Echo tells the story of Ivy Maria Lopez in 1942 California. Ivy’s family immigrated to the United States generations ago, yet they still face racism when they have to move from La Colonia in Fresno to Orange County near the city of Los Angeles. Ivy struggles with the move at first, wishing that her family could have just stayed in Fresno because it was the longest time they had stayed in one place. However, things start to change when the Lopezes move to Orange County. The house they are staying in is owned by a Japanese family, who had been relocated to a camp in Arizona soon after Pearl Harbor. Ivy’s family faces discrimination for being Hispanic as well as for working for the Yamamoto family. Nonetheless, Ivy rises above this discrimination, makes friends with a neighbor named Susan, and continues to bring happiness to those around her through the harmonica she plays. Though her big brother Fernando is in the military, Ivy has hope that he will return to her. This hope is dashed in both Ivy and the reader as this section of the novel ends with a telegram-carrying messenger boy arrives at Ivy’s house.

The stories of Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy are all entwined by the same harmonica that Otto used to hold the spirits of Eins, Zwei, and Drei. Each child receives the harmonica in some way. Friedrich finds it in an abandoned warehouse and then sends it with a shipment of harmonicas from his factory that are going to America. Mike feels compelled to buy the harmonica at a store, and Ivy receives it in a donation from a charity to her school. Each child finds that the harmonica has a haunting melody and sounds almost like multiple instruments are playing. By playing the harmonica, each child feels happy and peaceful, no matter the circumstance.

The final section of the novel takes place at Carnegie Hall in New York, 1951. Twenty or so years have passed from the original stories of these children. Friedrich is conducting an orchestra with Mike as a solo pianist and Ivy as the youngest flautist in the orchestra. The reader is filled in on the missing parts of each person’s story and how they are all connected. The harmonica, with the three sisters’ spirits safely inside, had been given to Kenneth Yamamoto, the son of the family for which Ivy’s family worked. Kenneth (Kenny) took the harmonica with him when he went back to war, keeping it in his front pocket. It ended up miraculously saving his life and thus freed the sisters from the witch’s curse.

This book was wonderfully written, showcasing great talent in storytelling and the weaving of lives together. One theme of the novel is the idea of music surpassing all boundaries or stereotypes. Friedrich’s father says near the beginning of the novel,

Music does not have race or a disposition…Every instrument has a voice that contributes. Music is a universal language. A universal religion of sorts…Music surpasses all distinctions between people. (86)

The idea that music is universal and unifying gives a more realistic view on overcoming stereotypes and barriers between people. Pam Muñoz Ryan approaches the delicate subject of racism in the enjoyable filter of music. This novel even offers a new perspective on history. Instead of focusing on the war itself, as some historical fiction does, Echo gives an account of those affected by the war in various ways, and does so while still remaining behind the filter of music and its effect on the lives of each character.

(1). Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Echo. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2015. Print.