PLAYING DAD’S SONG

Friedman offers a moving, heartfelt story of loss. Eleven-year-old Gus Moskowitz struggles with grief for his father who died in the bombing of the World Trade Center. Gus spends much of his time under a quilt remembering the times he spent with his dad, singing in the subway or going to the theater. Seeing the hole that was the WTC reminds Gus of his loss. If only he could compose a new life in which the bombings never took place. Concerned about her son, Gus’s mother rents an oboe and sets up lessons with her boss’s elderly father, Mr. Michelevsky, a holocaust survivor. Their friendship and Gus’s deepening interest in classical music encourages Gus to try his hand at composing. “Dad’s Song,” his first composition, is Gus’s loving tribute to his father. As Gus looks at the empty skyline, it’s no longer a hole but a new beginning. Readers will enjoy the references to musicals and classical music, but a list for further listening would have been a nice addition. (Fiction. 8-11)