Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

This is a touching and timely story that follows a harmonica through several owners from it's fabled creation to 3 children during World War II. We see how the Nazi party mistreated people in Germany, how orphans lived in the US, and how Japanese people were treated in the US during WWII as well as how Latino children were sent to segregated schools in parts of the US during that time. The three characters, 12 year old Friedrich, who lives in Germany and wants to be a composer, 11 year old Mike, an orphan in Pennsylvania, and Ivy Lopez, whose parents are migrant farm workers in California. Each child loves music and their lives are touched by the magical harmonica and are drawn together at the end of the book.  I listened to the audio book, which has music included that goes with the story and I also looked at the print version of the book, which has different fonts and colors of pages for parts of the story.  I enjoyed the book and think that young people will enjoy it as well.