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Tempo Change

Barbara Hall (Goodreads Author)

3.42 · Rating details · 156 ratings · 20 reviews

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

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Hardcover, 247 pages

Published June 9th 2009 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers (first published January 1st 2009)

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Lists with This Book

TRT's 2009 Gotta Have 'Em List! (Part 3)

148 books — 183 voters

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn

YA Music Books

453 books — 783 voters

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· 156 ratings · 20 reviews

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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 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 get everything done the best she can. She always realizes that on first try things aren't going to go the way she wants them to, and she now knows that life isn't all cupcakes and rainbows, and sometimes you have to make the best of what you have. Blanche’s internal Conflict is Character vs Self the evidence is Blanche has just had almost half of her band split up. She is trying to debate whether to get her band back together and play at Coachella. Or give up and not fulfill her dream of becoming a famous guitarist. It was because on page 56 Gigi said “ If we can't have a band mate that is going to be loyal, I quit.” The External Conflict is Character vs nature I know this because Viv is one of the band members, and is taking a hike with her family in the middle of the forest on a dirt path and gets lost from her mom and dad. Just then a snow storm rolls in and the rest of the band doesn't know if she can take the weather. This happened on page 45 when Viv says “ I know you guys think I'm crazy but I'm telling you it's real.” I liked this book because it has a lot of foreshadowing about what might happen to some of the characters and it sometimes let's us off with a mystery at the end of each chapter. It also explains the feeling and emotion of each character from how they like each other one minute and then don't the next and in between it tells a lot of detail. Even though this is a fun book for all I would recommend the book to people that are 12 and older, just because of some of the language. And this is a book for all genders, because it is a girl who likes to act more like a boy.
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Dec 21, 2008 Yan rated it liked it

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

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Mar 20, 2009 Alea rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-for-review

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

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Jul 10, 2009 Jennifer Wardrip rated it it was amazing

Shelves: trt-gold-star-award-winner, trt-posted-reviews, read-by-other-reviewers

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

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Sep 29, 2017 Melissa McGuire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 14, 2016 Amanda rated it liked it

It was decent. Blanche's snobbery got old, especially since her tastes were so mainstream. But the story took some turns I didn't expect and her relationship with her stepfather and gradual maturing throughout the story were fun to read.

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Feb 07, 2013 JudgyK rated it liked it

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 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 something about it. Blanche can’t just write a short piece. She writes Tempo Change.

Blanche starts out with what it’s like to grow up with a rock star dad. At first, you don’t really know that other kids don’t live the way you do, and you just assume that everybody is famous, not just your dad. And then you meet the real world and dad leaves and mom is a drunk and life is hard and then you’re a scholarship kid at a crappy private school working part-time at a crappy pizza joint. The thing about kids of people who had been really famous and aren’t famous any longer is that they’ve experienced the dark side of fame and art and talent like most people haven’t. Blanche is afraid of being too musical because her dad was a slave to his music. He fell into despair when he wasn’t creating, and was an obsessive disappearing act when he was.

But Blanche can’t avoid music. She’s been secretly writing songs, and gets the idea to form a band with some schoolmates. Next thing you know, her band is winning competitions, each of which provides the band with a bigger and better opportunity to perform at a bigger forum. Obviously culminating in Coachella, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Creating a band is hard work, especially when you’re keeping it from your mom because you don’t want her to worry that you’re turning into your father. To a point, it’s impossible NOT to turn into her father, because the music moves in Blanche and she has to write and she has to play and she has to create. But she isn’t her dad. She’s well-grounded in life. She gets (and, more importantly, TAKES) good advice from both her parents, and manages to get stuff done.

Eventually you figure out what happened at Coachella and why the magazine wants to hear about it. I won’t tell you that part. It was a decent book, quick read, and fun. But there wasn’t much to it. Oh, and the book was far too long to get into the magazine, obviously. That’s why it’s a book. I won’t read it again or probably ever think about the characters again, but it has some great thoughts on music and if you like music it has some great history stuff built in that’s worth hearing about. ...more

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Aug 08, 2009 Cecilia rated it liked it

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

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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.

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Feb 20, 2010 Court rated it it was ok

it was ok, but i didn't find it very interesting. I didn't even feel like finishing it, so i didn't. the ending could have been good, but i didn't get that far. There are way more other books to spend time on.

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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.!!!!!!!! :]

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Jan 08, 2014 Leena O'brien rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good book but I wouldn't say that it was for older people. It's more for teen girls

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Apr 18, 2013 Kimberley rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, i-own-a-copy, ya-contemporary, stand-alone-novels, young-adult

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

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Jun 24, 2014 Eric rated it liked it

Wasn't really attention grabbing. I even put it down for about a week at one point. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, it was a decent read. It was just boring.

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Aug 06, 2009 Britt, Book Habitue marked it as to-read

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Mar 16, 2010 Gloria rated it it was amazing

This book was really good. the part were the girl was in her room sitting down on her bed and thinking about the things like her mom was the most good part of the whole book

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Sep 06, 2011 Hanna added it · review of another edition

Really good book:) I hope everybody on the Saber Cats will read this book:)

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Jul 19, 2012 Stephanie A. rated it liked it

Nice enough character, but I expected better from the creator of my beloved Joan of Arcadia. High school bands that are not the cool instrumental kind = blah.

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Jun 09, 2010 Kelle rated it liked it

A YA book with a musical background. I enjoyed the book, although there was some teenage angst.

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About Barbara Hall

Barbara Hall

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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.