Karina Yan Glaser’s First Non-Vanderbeekers Novel

A DUET FOR HOME
By Karina Yan Glaser

“A Duet for Dwelling” is Karina Yan Glaser’s first departure from her best-selling Vanderbeekers collection, however this new center grade novel revisits three of that collection’ themes: household, group and residential. Readers who love the Vanderbeekers won’t be upset.

Glaser effortlessly interweaves the story strains of two preteens residing in a South Bronx homeless shelter: June Yang, a newcomer, and Tyrell Chee, who has resided at Huey Home together with his mom for 3 years. Chapter titles are labeled with the corresponding character’s identify, regardless that the third-person narrative makes it clear whose story is being instructed as Glaser alternates between them.

June and Tyrell don’t bond instantly. June, who arrives from Chinatown along with her mom and little sister, shoulders grownup accountability. Her mom hasn’t spoken since June’s father died in an accident on his supply bike six months in the past. Tyrell’s mom is equally unsupportive, and his father is incarcerated. In contrast to June, who’s mature past her years, Tyrell alleviates the monotony of his tough life by enjoying pranks on his fellow residents.

A couple of hints counsel that Tyrell is haunted by his father’s prison actions, and we glimpse June’s grief over the lack of her adoring father. However Glaser doesn’t delve deep into emotional turmoil. As an alternative, the creator (who labored within the New York Metropolis shelter system) exhibits us the kids’s on a regular basis lives by way of genuine particulars.

Huey Home is run by the draconian Ms. MacMillan (a.ok.a. MacVillain), who hates music as a lot as June loves it and forbids residents from retaining or enjoying musical devices. Tyrell cements his reference to June after he and his finest buddy, Jeremiah, present her a secret area the place she will observe her beloved viola.

Life isn’t straightforward at Huey Home, however June feels welcomed by Ms. Gonzalez (the household companies director), Marcus (head of safety), Lulu Vega (a teenage resident) and her mom, who’ve lived there collectively for a yr, and a grandmother identified merely as Abuela. Even “Dinner Girl” — the initially intimidating cook dinner and cafeteria server — seems to be form, including vegetarian choices to the menu to accommodate June’s sister’s wants. Better of all, Abuela asks Domenika, a musician who lives subsequent door, to tackle June as a scholar, and June persuades Domenika to additionally train Tyrell, whose ardour for classical music matches hers.

However June and Tyrell’s newfound camaraderie is threatened when the residents are knowledgeable that the mayor needs to decrease “homeless numbers” by forcing folks to maneuver out of shelters and into substandard housing (corresponding to rundown lodges). The story’s tempo picks up abruptly, taking many sharp turns within the final hundred pages earlier than veering again to the principle thread. Tyrell runs away, returns and receives a touching letter of forgiveness from the brother of the person his father murdered. June’s sister goes lacking and Tyrell helps discover her. June learns when and the place the mayor plans to announce her coverage on homelessness, and she or he and Tyrell quickly manage an illustration. They interrupt the information convention and communicate so eloquently in help of Huey Home that the mayor guarantees to rethink her proposal.

The ending is poignant, specializing in risk reasonably than certainty. Friendship, hopes and desires come collectively within the last word that Glaser strikes. “A Duet for Dwelling” is not any symphony; we hear no cymbals or trumpets. It’s a mellow tune with dulcet tones, performed on June’s favourite instrument: the viola.