The Way to Stay in Destiny

 I truly appreciate this review, which I missed when it first appeared.

Especially the last line. 




After his grandparents give up their farm due to his grandmother's poor health, 12-year-old Theo M. Thomas becomes the responsibility of his uncle. Although Uncle Raymond tries to do the right thing, he resents having to give up his independent life in Alaska. He takes Theo to Destiny, FL, where there's a job, but things are far from permanent. Even as Theo starts making friends and embracing the musical talent he has inherited from his deceased parents, his uncle is making plans for moving on.  For reasons revealed in the story, Uncle Raymond cannot abide music and forbids Theo to play the piano. Although an uneasy truce is eventually worked out and Theo's uncle starts to soften his stance on music, readers will realize that past experiences affect the future. Setting the story in 1974 allows Theo's uncle to struggle with PTSD from his time in Vietnam, which explains some of his behavior. While Theo and his baseball-loving friend, Anabel, might seem to have separate journeys, they are linked by their need to find their own destiny rather than doing what others want. As they both come to realize, sometimes our destiny simply finds us, even in a remote town in the South called Destiny.


- See more at: http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily...