~A fine, quick read

The Songwriter, fourth in the On Tour series by Barb Huff, lets us into Darby McKennitt's head and heart. Darby is fifteen. The book opens with her worries about her parents' relationship. She thinks they are headed for divorce. Those marital difficulties act as a backdrop for the book and a constant problem for Darby as she struggles with understanding how love works

There is so much that I liked about this book. The characters were clearly painted, easy to know, all had separate personalities and quirks. They were like real people. The dialogue was great. It is obvious that Ms. Huff has spent time with teen-agers and understands their language.

More than just understanding their language, I think Ms. Huff understands the longings of the teen-aged heart. The insecurity and the pride that reside side by side in the heart of the normal teen were both here, painted clearly.

The subject matter of the book didn't turn me on. I'm a fantasy lover, and this Christian band business is a type of fantasy, but not one I care about. So it is kind of hard for me to judge this book fairly. It's a small book, and I love big books. In fact, I kept thinking as I read it, "I hope she writes a big book someday because she's really a good writer." My sixteen year-old niece, though, liked both of the On Tour books I gave her. And she is Huff's target audience so that counts for a lot.

While I enjoyed the book the whole time I was in it, and I was never bored or jolted in any way, when I finished the book it was easy for me to forget it. The character's names didn't stay with me. Neither did their troubles. The Songwriter felt light to me. The parents' problems push Darby to be introspective, and somewhat cranky. She is worried. She wonders if there really is such a thing as love or if it's only the subject of songs. That's a question worth dealing with and yet I don't think Darby delved very deeply into it.

The conflict was not very important to me. I never got the feeling that Darby's whole world would crumble if things didn't work out the way she wanted. In-between the trouble and the resolution I never felt like the stakes were very big and I never got entirely in Darby's corner. I knew she didn't like what her parents were doing but I didn't witness the many parental arguments or the abandonment so I never really felt what Darby felt.

Neither did I find anything that lifted the work to greatness. No phrases that jumped out as really witty or finely crafted, no character that pulled at my heartstrings, no huge battles fought, or victories won.

One of the many things I think Barb Huff did right was incorporate Christianity into the book naturally and unapologetically. Her characters are Christians. They pray and read their Bibles and they stumble and wish they prayed and read more consistently. I really liked the way the author dealt with all of this. No big conversions or sappy scenes thrown in to Christianize the book.

I love that this author is offering Christian girls someone who looks like they do. For too long, Christianity has been out of vogue, so if children wanted to read books populated with Christians, or even characters with a reasonable moral code, they had to read about old-fashioned kids. Because everyone knows that kids today aren't decent or Christian. I love that Barb Huff is offering Christian kids some contemporary Christian characters. They go to public school, they fall in love with boys, they long to be rock stars--normal girls. And they happen to care about pleasing God. More books of this kind are needed. Teen Christians are terribly underrepresented in today's literature. I have to, again, praise Barbour for recognizing good writing and for recognizing a hole in the market that desperately needs filling.

The Songwriter is interesting and well crafted and surely deserves an audience. It will probably never be a classic but it's a fine, quick read for teen girls.

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Copyright © 2005 Sally Apokedak