Books with a Soundtrack, a guest post by Meg Whittaker

Soundtracks bring an extra layer to a film and strengthen emotional moments, pace the story line, and add intensity. Soundtracks evokes the audience and a layer to the storyline. There are authors who embed music into their books not just as a reference but instead it plays out like a soundtrack to deepen the substance of the book. This adds an extra sensory component to a character’s development, chapter, or conflict. When authors reference music, or as I am calling it add a soundtrack, they seek reader connection by activating prior knowledge. When a character is mad in a story and then put on Metallica, we as readers fall into two groups group 1.) we know the song/band and we play the music in our heads and take part in the character’s reaction and enforcing a connection with the reader or 2.) the reader does not know the music but know the author is implying “something” with the reference. Of the readers of the second category, I think it is fascinating to see how my students have started looking up and listening to the music they do not know, making the music in the story an interaction between the author, story, and reader. Authors do name drop other books in stories to share about a character, but I hope more authors see the magic they have when they add a soundtrack to a book. How it adds to the dimension of the story.  Adding a soundtrack to a book is a way an author can speak directly to the reader but not by breaking the fourth wall instead through the voice of music and with today’s access to online music often it is a click away.  

Looking for the soundtrack in books is great and if the author leaves the soundtrack out you can ask students what they hear when they read that passage, think of that character, interpret that scene. I have had some students with aphantasia and connecting readings to music helps them with comprehension. As an educator I love assignments where students get to pair their music with what they are learning; it is a great asset in our toolbox. Music is a window into a student and allows students to connect prior knowledge and demonstrate understanding of the lesson. Connecting books to students’ preferred music also lets an educator get insight into their students. Assigning music connections is not limited to English Language Arts but reflection of moments in history, create a time capsule of songs of an era or culture and why music is important, ask how a math problem might make them feel and use a song to respond, or re-writing a favorite song to help learn the periodic table.

*The books listed below include important social justice issues, teens facing racism/discrimination, death, LGBTQIA+ acceptance, poverty, abuse, cancer, Covid, abandonment, sexual harassment, and more. I do not mean to detract from the above important topics by focusing primarily on the soundtracks within.

Wink: I have to give a shout out to a book that is based in my hometown. Rob Harrell’s Wink is more than me reliving days gone by, but he crafts a heartwarming story of overcoming obstacles in friendship, family, and health, creating comics, but also how music is medicine for so many of us. Harrell paints the book’s soundtrack that starts with Beyoncé and leads the reader to U2, Simon and Garfunkel, Chet Baker, the Ramones, and gives a shout out to playing the recorder in elementary. A sound that is good or bad depending on how well you practiced.

The First Rule of Punk: Celia C Pérez creates a controlling impression of a dynamic Latina that is forced to deal with a move to Chicago. By chapter two Malú, our central character declares of love of zines and seventies and eighties punk records. Like in Wink, in The First Rule of Punk music becomes a supportive crutch as a young teen struggle with change and emotions. Pérez enhances the story with mentions of the Go-Gos, Wizard of Oz, Morrissey, and The Smiths. What I love is that Pérez brings in Punk with Latino artists (Poly Styrene & the X-Ray Spex, Alice Bag, The Zeros, the Plugz, the Brat ) and ranchera music, especially Lola Beltrán. To not give too much away an important line from the book “being punk was about being open-minded,” which is important as Malú faces the question of who she is versus where she comes from.

Four Years Trapped in My Mind Palace– Johan Twiss brings friendship to a coma entwining the metaphysical to Aaron who is diagnosed as brain dead and Solomon an elderly gentleman. Four Years Trapped in My Mind Palace writes as Aaron’s consciousness but through unexplained whimsy they can speak to each other and share Solomon’s experiences in something not quite like time travel. Twiss gives the reader a soundtrack heavy in Jazz and Big Band but also songs like: Sesame Street theme song, “Blue in Green,” “Sing, Sing, Sing, “April in Paris,” “My Funny Valentine” Hanukkah blessings, songs from Mary Poppins and adds plot conflict with the ‘real’ “Mack the Knife.” Twiss further references Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Bobby Darina.  

Candidly Cline – “A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock ‘N Roll,” may be a song performed by brother sister duo Donny and Marie Osmond but in Kathryn Ormsbee’s Candidly Cline this phrase channels a friendship (maybe more) for protagonist and classic country enthusiast Cline. Ormsbee champions classic country artists Emmylou Harris, Patsy Cline, and Tanya Tucker but also adds to the soundtrack classic women in rock like Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, and Tina Turner. Cline may not have an affinity for rockers, but she does show her rule breaker side by secretly attending a music class behind her mom’s class. A girl can root her heart in country music but still appreciate the way Courtney Love’s Violet “starts strummy and haunting, like a starlit dream.” A non-central but layered aspect to the soundtrack are the theme songs from grandma’s tv shows. TV show theme songs have an impact and stay in our minds, like Mary Tyler Moore.

If I ever get out of Here – Eric Gansworth tackles the very true notion that friendship can be hard. Hard when you are looked at differently by most of your peers which makes you defensive, making it hard to accept that someone truly wants to be your friend. If I Ever Get Out of Here is set in the mid-1970s and follows Lewis (Shoe) as he deals with a white community that treats his Tuscarona heritage badly. The book title is a song from Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run album. Gansworth heavily fills the pages with music from Paul McCartney and Wings, The Beatles, David Bowie, and Queen. Gansworth paints vulnerable and heartwarming moments when Shoe hears Queen’s song “My Best Friend,” and instantly wants to share it with a friend but also mixes in humor like a subtle joke that Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” is the only song some people learn to play on the guitar. Gansworth turns the transcendental moment of a music lover’s first concert into a hero’s journey.

Alma Presses Play – Alma Presses Play writes the reader into the 1980s. Author Tina Cane uses the book-in-verse formatting to play into indecisive and scattered movements of constantly busy New York thoughts that teens can have. Cane plants a soundtrack that includes 80s pop music Bee Gees, David Bowie, The Go-Gos but also Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. The beginning of some chapters includes song quotes, lines of wisdom, from such artists like The Pretenders, Michael Jackson, The Drifters, and Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight. There has to be a great appreciation of Cane choosing either iconic “Should I stay Or Should I Go” by The Clash while Alma has a huge decision in front of her. The idea of using the song may seem cliche but it is only cliche but the song tells it as it is and empathizing and stands in as a friend.

Across the Sea: The power of one song through the generations may be the backbone, the heart, the soul of Ruth Behar’s Across So Many Seas with the use of the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) traditional song “La Serena.” Throughout the book we read/hear “in the sea there is a tower” a section from ”La Serena” is a song that holds its own story within the book itself but in Behar’s text it crosses four countries and history from the 15th century to the beginning of the 21st century.  La Serena translates to ‘the night air.’ The title directs the reader to important elements of rising climax throughout the story.

Middle grade books are so often not written for middle schoolers. Many are labeled for grades 3-7 even though middle school can range from 5-9 grades. Directly thinking of my students who declare, “I want to read about high schoolers, not kids my age,” these five Young Adult titles are for middle school students who want YA reads and YA maturity.

Invisible Son – Not quite a murder mystery but not-not a murder mystery. Andre, our protagonist faced a false conviction, bias, Covid, and a missing friend in Invisible Son. Author Kim Johnson used song titles as chapter titles. Some of the songs included are: “With or Without You,” “Killing Me Softly,” “Make Me Wanna Holler,” “You Can’t Touch This,” “Everybody Want to Rule the World,” and many more. Readers must decide if the songs match the chapter. The soundtrack gem of the book is that Andre does YouTube reaction videos for music from the 1980s and 90s. Music like Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks,” Mary J. Blige’s “I Can Love You,” and Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Where so many books use music to help place the decade of the story, like a time capsule, Johnon uses retro music in a modern way. And in using reaction videos, which are are meant to capture truth, it reflects what Andre hopes to find.

Eleanor and Park (& Super Fake Love Song): Some love stories break your heart and Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park does that, but she also lets us fall in love with the central characters falling in love within their alternating perspectives. The offering of a headphone is an act of love. Rowell shares with the reader a soundtrack of: The Sex Pistols, Skinny Puppy, Misfits, U2, Peter Gabriel, Joy Division, The Dead Kennedys. Rowell also addresses that music is limited if you live in poverty especially in the 1980s because batteries are expensive. Recently, I stumbled upon an article on Perspectives called, “The Problem with Eleanor & Park” by Chantal Cheung. I hear what Cheung is asserting about Park’s Korean American identity, where Rowell got Eleanor in her abusive poverty, fear, and abuse spot on it is not the same for Park. For a soundtrack book written by a Korean American author David Yoon’s Super Fake Long Song should be read too. Still a love story but with music references that include Sleater-Kinney, Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Green Day. What is the best way to not lie? Become your lie or that is what Sunny aims to do to keep the interest of a new girl. My students describe the book as, “cringy, in a good way.” 

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children – I was worried that including Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kristin Cronn-Mills was too on the nose of the topic of a book with a built-in soundtrack. It is a book about an inspiring DJ so we the reader cannot avoid music.  Ample artists and albums are listed, played, or referenced that I am not sure there is a page without a mention. But this is part of what makes this book so great. Where else can you hear about Marvin Gay, Radiohead, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jay-Z, Frank Zappa, Five Satins, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, Ides of March, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, Green Day, Rod Stewart, and Devo? The protagonist Gabe is an “Ode to Radio.”  There is a place in music for all genres, just like the world has a place for all people. Any student who fears the question, “what music do you like…?” can sample a lot of genres in one read.

Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band – There should be more graphic novels on this list but I don’t need to convince my students to read graphic novels, but I do have to be a bit persuasive to get students to read non-fiction graphic novels. Biographies and history told in graphic novel format does spark interest. Christian Staebler, Sonia Paoloni and Thibault Balahy’s bandography Redbone brings in history, music, and voices that should be listened to and heard.

BIO: Meg Whittaker has been an educator and library media specialist for 20 years. 

Filed under: Music