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Tempo Change
by
It’s tough enough defining your identity—imagine if your father was a rock legend.
Blanche Kelly's dad is a famous indie rock icon, but not many people at the private school she attends on scholarship know this. Her father left when she was in the first grade, and she can’t quite forgive her mom for not understanding that an artist like her dad needs the time and space to c ...more
Blanche Kelly's dad is a famous indie rock icon, but not many people at the private school she attends on scholarship know this. Her father left when she was in the first grade, and she can’t quite forgive her mom for not understanding that an artist like her dad needs the time and space to c ...more
Hardcover, 247 pages
Published
June 9th 2009
by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
(first published January 1st 2009)
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Showing 1-30

Oct 27, 2017
Sidney
added it
The book I’m reading is Tempo Change by Barbara Hall. Blanche is not the normal type of kid. To start things off, her dad left her when she was six. Then her mom started to become drawn to her room. She did get help, but not right away. Now her lead band singer Viv, has now turned up missing in the forest, Blanche has no idea now what to do.Blanche, her mom and her band, now like their new set up. Her band is now the best in her town. But back at home she is a hard school student and tries to ge
...more

Review: I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I picked this book up. Will it be about the road to fame? Will it be about family troubles once her father leaves? And the biggest question of them all was will it be amazing? The answer to all the questions was yes…well to the last, pretty much, but not fully.
We start from the basics—band mates. The entire process was short, one line long. How? Blanche is a writer for the school newspaper so she wrote in her column that she and he ...more
We start from the basics—band mates. The entire process was short, one line long. How? Blanche is a writer for the school newspaper so she wrote in her column that she and he ...more

I really liked the main character, Blanche's voice. She's spunky, sarcastic and she speaks her mind. She is what she is and she seems fine with it. She has a unique perspective.
One of my favorite things about this book was Blanche's journey to Coachella and meeting her father again. In the form of creating a band called the Fringers from girls she plucked from different parts of her life (her friend, a girl with a wonderful voice in her choir class, and a girl she works with but never really kne ...more
One of my favorite things about this book was Blanche's journey to Coachella and meeting her father again. In the form of creating a band called the Fringers from girls she plucked from different parts of her life (her friend, a girl with a wonderful voice in her choir class, and a girl she works with but never really kne ...more

Reviewed by LadyJay for TeensReadToo.com
"There was so much to say......Now I had someone to say it to."
Blanche Kelly knows good music. She knows music because of her father, Duncan Kelly. He was a musical genius, in his prime.
But most of the people at Laurel Hall Academy (fondly referred to as LaHa by its students) don't know this detail of her life. She tries to keep his influence hidden, but it's always there - the guitar he left with her mother; the music column that she writes for the school ...more
"There was so much to say......Now I had someone to say it to."
Blanche Kelly knows good music. She knows music because of her father, Duncan Kelly. He was a musical genius, in his prime.
But most of the people at Laurel Hall Academy (fondly referred to as LaHa by its students) don't know this detail of her life. She tries to keep his influence hidden, but it's always there - the guitar he left with her mother; the music column that she writes for the school ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Tempo Change begins with Blanche Kelly receiving a phone call from someone at whatever music magazine it is that isn’t Rolling Stone but is still kind of a big deal. That person wants to talk to her about what happened at Coachella. Blanche hopes that it’ll be about her band’s performance, but knows it won’t and is utterly unsurprised when the caller says, “About your dad and what happened there with him.” The magazine figures Blanche would have a unique perspective and asks her to write somethi
...more

tempo Change, in retrospect, did not have a lot going on - at least, anything major that sticks out in my mind as I type this review. It was basically about a girl who starts a band and hopes that this will entice her father to come back into her life. Nothing too deep or mind-boggling, but I still found it rather charming. A nice story to fill in that small gap of free time right before I completely zonk out from exhaustion.
I suppose, after reading about loud-mouth, rebellious girls, Blanche se ...more
I suppose, after reading about loud-mouth, rebellious girls, Blanche se ...more

Oct 07, 2012
Whisper Poet
added it
This was a great coming of age and understanding story. A great, realistic view of the world of art and music.
Blanche it's the daughter of Assn ex-famous musician who left when she was 6. Now in high school, she is faced with the feelings and realities of her life and the artist in her.
Very enjoyable read.
Blanche it's the daughter of Assn ex-famous musician who left when she was 6. Now in high school, she is faced with the feelings and realities of her life and the artist in her.
Very enjoyable read.
![georgia:]!!!!!](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1312946794p2/5074087.jpg)
Nov 17, 2011
georgia:]!!!!!
is currently reading it
so far its good i havnt gotten that far into it thought right now but im hoping that ill really like it.!!!!!!!! :]

The plot wasn't overly detailed in this story but it was quite thought provoking at times.
Not a bad little read.
Not a bad little read.

Aug 06, 2009
Britt, Book Habitue
marked it as to-read
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To TV audiences she may be better known as a four-time Emmy-nominated writer and producer (Joan of Arcadia, Judging Amy) and the co-Executive Producer of Homeland, but to avid readers she’s a novelist with 11 published works whose imagination has been honored by numerous institutions, including the American Library Association in both their Best Books and Notable Books categories.
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“I felt for the first time, maybe ever, how much harder it was to be the adults. And I wasn't sure I could do that when it was my turn.”
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“I wanted to smell the guitars. It's hard to explain but they have a smell. And the best way I could ever describe it would be to say they smell like potential. Ambition and desire. If such things had a smell.”
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