Struts and Frets by Jon Skovron - Review

Music runs through Sammy Bojar’s veins. His dreams are filled with music, as are most of his waking thoughts. He’s in a band, Tragedy of Wisdom, (the lead singer’s choice and yes, he knows it’s not a good name, really he does) and they’ve decided to compete in a battle of the bands, although they all know they don’t practice enough, the singer doesn’t know the words to the songs yet, and sometimes they don’t even all play the same song at the same time.

As if this was not enough to worry Sammy, his jazz pianist grandfather is not well and seems to be getting worse, slipping away. He keeps bumping into the flip side of musical success (so how on earth is he going to persuade his Mom that he wants to play music professionally?). And apparently one of his band mates is interested in his best friend, who may be interested in more than friendship with him.

This coming of age story is full of warmth and humor, it’s light and fun and brimming with music. Skovron obviously shares Sammy’s passion for all kinds of music and Struts and Frets is a must read for any music-loving teen. And I really did like the inclusion of Sammy’s soundtrack for the book.