Beethoven in Paradise [Paperback]

Set in a trailer park called Paradise

You're just wasting your God-given talents if you don't get yourself something besides a little ole harmonica to play. Wylene made it sound so easy. Martin had always like music -- liked to listen to it, liked to make up tunes in his head. But all he had to do was say the word piano to his father and all hell would break loose. His father thought music was for sissies, and was always mad at Martin for not being good at baseball. But with a lot of help from his friends Wylene and Sybil and his grandmother, Hazeline, Martin learns that, although he can't change his father, he can learn to stick up for himself. With humor, pathos, and a colorful cast of offbeat characters, Barbara O'Connor shows that there's room for genius wherever there's a place for compassion-- even in Paradise.

Martin. . .is musically talented and lives in a trailer park called Paradise. His macho father thinks that music is for wimps and that real boys play baseball. School Library Journal

For every child who never wanted to play sports, a kindred spirit. . .Captures a young boy's heart and holds it out as a gift. Pointer, Kirkus Reviews

Quirky characters populate this promising&first novel&. Publishers Weekly

Barbara O'Connoris the author of numerous acclaimed books for children, includingFame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia;Me and Rupert Goody;Greetings from NowhereandHow to Steal a Dog. She has been awarded the Parents' Choice Gold and Silver Awards, the Massachusetts Book Award, and the Dolly Gray Award, among many honors. As a child, she loved dogs, salamanders, tap dancing, school, and even homework. Her favorite days were when the bookmobile came to town. She was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, and now lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a historic seaside village not far from Plymouth Rock.