Behind These Hands
- Authors
- Phillips, Linda Vigen
- Publisher
- Light Messages
- Tags
- contemporary , music , young adult , teenager;music;piano;high school;friendship;batten disease;living with disabilities;grief;siblings;family;verse;taylor's tale;skila brown;kwame alexander;laura king edwards;junior library guild , poetry
- ISBN
- 9781611532593
- Date
- 2018-07-17T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 1.02 MB
- Lang
- en
Fourteen-year-old Claire Fairchild has always known music would be her life. She enters a prestigious contest pitted against Juan, a close childhood friend. It doesn’t help that her thoughts about him have turned romantic. But nothing compares to the devastating news that both younger brothers have Batten disease.
While attending a conference about this rare neurodegenerative disorder, Claire receives word that she has won the contest. Her musical goals no longer seem relevant. She can’t reconcile the joy and prestige that a classical music career would bring to her life while her brothers are succumbing to an early and ugly death.
When Claire accompanies a friend on a school newspaper assignment, she meets a centenarian with a unique musical past and only one regret in life. Claire knows something in her life has to change before she, too, has regrets. With newfound courage and determination, she finds a new way to express herself musically while celebrating the lives of her dying brothers.