Miracle

by Karen S. Chow

When her father dies, Amie's ability to play music dies, too. Nothing short of a miracle can bring back what she has lost. 

Amie has spent her life perfectly in tune with Ba-ba, her father—she plays the violin, his favorite instrument; she loves all his favorite foods, even if he can’t eat them during his cancer treatments; and they talk about books, including Amie’s favorite series, Harry Potter. But after Ba-ba dies, Amie feels distanced from everyone close to her, like her mother and her best friends, Rio and Bella. More devastating still, she loses her ability to play the violin—the notes that used to flow freely are now stilted and sharp. Will Amie ever find her way back to the music she once loved? 

With hope and harmony lighting the way—and with help from the people who care about her most—Amie must find the strength to carry on. In the end, she’ll learn that healing, while painful, can be its own miraculous song. 

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Music, Mental Health, Grief, Death, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 28, 2023

About the author

Karen S. Chow started writing novels as a college sophomore at Arizona State University, while earning a degree in electrical engineering. Now, she is an engineer by day and middle-grade novelist by night. She lives in Gilbert, AZ, with her family.

Reviews

[Christie Welsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

While some feel that avoiding sad or difficult topics in children’s books is a way to shelter children from difficulty, most books help and heal with such difficulty. Empathy can be learned through reading, especially through reading fiction. "Miracle" is such a book. Amie’s father (her Ba-ba) has struggled with cancer for years, and sadly passes away. The book opens with her father already ill, so the story is less about him being ill, and more about what happens during and after his illness. Definitely more appropriate for older readers, due to the sensitive nature of the content. Beautifully written with references to music (each chapter is started with a musical term, definition, and that theme emerges in the main character’s life within that chapter), to friendship (“Thank you for giving me space to be sad”), and to Harry Potter (they identify as Slytherin, but don’t hold that against them). This book would be helpful for children experiencing the loss of a parent or loved one, for children considering going to therapy, and will help them know that this too shall pass.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my review.

[Mai H.]

ANHPI TBR

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Christy Ottaviano Books

[Afoma (Reading Middle Grade) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miracle by Karen S. Chow is a grief-laden middle grade book about losing a parent, coping with grief, and leaning on community. This is an understandably sad but moving story that I hope appeals to the right audience. While the subject matter is challenging, I appreciated the pacing of the story, the themes of friendship and music, and the unique mother-daughter relationship issues the author highlights. If you don’t mind sad stories, I definitely recommend this one.

Full review: https://readingmiddlegrade.com/miracl...

[Guylou (Two Dogs and a Book) · Rating 4 out of 5]

MIRACLE by Karen S. Chow is a poignant middle-grade novel about a young girl's journey through grief after losing her father. The author masterfully captures the complex emotions of the protagonist, Amie, as she navigates through a difficult time in her life. The story is heartwarming and uplifting, as Amie learns to cope with her loss and finds healing with the help of her mother and friends. Chow's writing style is simple yet effective, making the book accessible to young readers while still conveying the depth of Amie's emotions. The story is infused with music and each chapter is titled with a music term which relates to the feelings Amie is experiencing. Overall, MIRACLE is a beautiful book that teaches readers to recognise the importance of family and community in times of hardship.

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[Karah Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book that manages to break your heart and then begin to mend it again.

I appreciated the way cancer was shown here -- not as something tragic and romantic but as something messy and cruel. It changes the people you love before your eyes and you're left trying to untangle the person you knew from the disease taking hold of them.

Showing what grief can do to you, to your family members and friends, showing that grief looks different for everyone, is a very powerful message for anyone at any age. I can imagine giving this book to kids whose friends are struggling with grief, to help them understand and cope with the chaos that grief can introduce.

While I'm talking a lot about sad things in this review, this book has a sweetness and joy to it also. It has humor and beautiful musical descriptions. It's a challenging read emotionally, but it's never a chore or slog. It carries you through and holds you in safe hands.

I feel grateful to have read this, and I hope it finds its way into the hands of readers who need it.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story about grief, hope, and music.
Amie loves to play the violin. It is something she shares with her father. When he dies, she is unable to play. His death causes her to feel separate from everyone, including her two best friends. With the help of her music teacher and her mother and friends, Amie learns to let joy and music back into her life.

[Richelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough one with many sad notes. The story was painfully beautiful, but at times I was more into it than other parts. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if given the option.

[Sharon Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the way the author used musical terms as headers for the chapters, setting the tone for them. The main character feels authentic and the story contains a great deal of truth.

[Melissa Dassori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Chow's debut tells the heart-wrenching story of sixth grader Amie's struggle to find harmony in the wake of her father's death. Although surrounded by caring family and friends, Amie can't understand her mother's desire to quickly reinstate routines, nor can she stop comparing their relationship to the warmer one she had with her dad. A musical thread weaves creatively through the story, as Amie tries to regain the love of playing violin that was once key to her joyful nature and sense of self. This is such a touching book about a difficult subject. It brings a quiet hope, despite authentic struggle, to young readers who may be dealing with their own loss, showing that they can find a path forward even after the hardest events.

[Rozanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't envy the challenge adult authors have trying to sound like middle schoolers - it's hard, for sure. But this one had the *sixth* graders having more complex and in depth conversations and explorations of their feelings with each other than any adult I know. It was just wholly unbelievable. I'm a middle school librarian - ain't no sixth grader in my life talking and acting like this. Was hard to get past this aspect of the book.

[Amanda Rawson Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and hopeful and real!

[Meg Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Grief is the hardest emotion,” she said again. “We will carry it for eternity. But I know we can bear it with grace.”

As someone who grew up in music, I really enjoyed Miracle by Karen S Chow on multiple levels. I love all the integration of musical terms as ways Amie describes her world, but also how they teach the reader about music organically. I love how each chapter has a musical concept that’s sort of a metaphor for the larger ideas of what’s going on in the narrative. Amie’s use of musical language is so poetic and a great example of voice, or the language of a protagonist's experience. It also really demonstrates how music is such an integral part of how Amie lives and experiences the world. I love how her music conveys her emotional state, and that she struggles with the idea of being labelled as “fragile.” Even if I haven’t been in Amie’s shoes, I relate to falling apart, to trying to act like everything’s fine, and trying to be reasonable, but not being able to keep it up. Amie's grief isn't just over the loss of her father, but the loss of her music. As a creative person, I particularly resonate with her struggle to make music in her pain, and her journey to figure out how to make music again. I love seeing that she succeeds, giving the powerful reminder that even if we are in a difficult season, we can "turn" and find our way back to our creativity.

Every element of this story embodies Ba-ba's phrase to "be hopeful." While the story starts with death, it ends with life. Miracle gives an intimate lens on Amie’s journey with grief and change and what it means to “get better” or “back to normal” when there is no normal to return to. It provides an incredible model for adults and kids alike on how to try to understand others that are different than you, to seek harmony, and to find hope even when things are more painful than you could ever imagine. Heartbreaking. Beautiful. Hopeful. Highly recommended. 

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amie loves music, and even as a sixth grader, she is concertmaster of her orchestra with the help of her trusty violin. At home, Amie plays for her father as he is recovering from cancer treatments, his positive demeanor encouraging her to keep improving. But as the cancer winds its way into Ba-ba’s brain, he becomes a different person, and all the hope he and Amie shared begins to disappear. And when the unthinkable happens, Amie loses her ability to play music, and it will require a miracle to help her emerge from her sorrow.

This novel is beautifully crafted, and it focuses intently on the range of emotions Amie feels. Using Harry Potter as a source of countless metaphors, Amie describes her world and her feelings in terms of scenes from those books. Additionally, each chapter in this novel begins with an element of music that directly relates to the events within the chapter. These two ongoing themes help readers connect to Amie in multiple ways, whether or not they have lost a loved one themselves.

Short chapters and a straightforward writing style make this book well suited to its target audience. Young readers will appreciate the depth of the storytelling in this book, and it will especially speak to readers who have navigated sorrow and grief in their lives. Amie’s music serves as a tangible reflection of her emotions, and Amie’s persistence in the wake of tragedy is inspiring to readers of all ages. An author's note and glossary at the end of the book enhance the story and give readers an additional perspective on Amie’s experiences and just how true her feelings really are. Heartbreaking and honest, this book is one that will resonate with readers and is a particularly good selection for both book clubs and classroom reading.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had tears streaming down my face while reading this one. It is so gut wrenching, and so good. I thought it would be sappy, seeing as the premise is that a girl loses her father to cancer, and then loses her music ability as well, because it reminded her of him.

The author said she wrote it based on losing her father to cancer, while she was in college. And how she traded times, sitting at his bedside, while he slipped away.

Death is hard. When my mother came home, after a month in the hospital, to die at home, we kept pretending that she just came home to get well, sort of how Amie keeps thinking her father will get well. This is despite all the clues that this is not happening. She just ignores all the clues. It is so easy to do, to just keep hoping for the best.

The book is divided by the before time, when she was the first violin, and was going to have a solo, to after her father died, when she can’t play, because it reminds her of how much he loved her music.

And because she is young, she is struggling with this. Her life is music. How can she lose her father and her music?

A perfect book for those who have lost a parent, especially if they are young, but heck, I could relate to this so much, even though both my parents lived into their 90s.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Books for making this available for an honest review.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This deeply moving middle grade debut tells Amie's story as she lives with her father through the final stages of his illness, grapples with his loss, and finds a way forward through her loss, anger, and grief. Karen Chow does an incredible job of staying with Amie through her feelings, including confronting the simple fact that she doesn't want to experience all of them, on her journey to getting help through a counselor. This respect for childrens' emotions is infused throughout the text and something I think young readers will really connect with. We also see Amie process her grief through her violin music and her participation in fandoms, all in very kid-relatable ways. Finally, I appreciated that the author explored that there may not be going "back to normal" for anyone touched by grief we see not only Amie and her mother struggle, but also their friends and family relearn how to be in each other's lives. The story is accompanied by a touching and powerful author's note on Karen's loss of her own father and the help that counseling provided her. Highly recommend! thank you to the publisher for the chance to read early!

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Amie is a miracle to her parents because her father was fighting cancer even before she was born, and they didn't think they would be able to have a child. He has continued to struggle with the disease, but is always optimistic that he will beat it. Amie knows that her time with her father is precious, and takes comfort in family rituals and shared interest, like her music. Amie is a talented violinist, who plays with the school group and also takes lesson from the director, Ms. Soto. The family doesn't hide the father's illness; in fact, he is visiting Amie's class to deliver a message about hope when he collapses. While Amie doesn't mind if her close friends Rio and Bella know all the details, it's hard when the whole school knows. Her father goes into the hospital, and it's clear that he's not doing well. He gives Amie a violin of her own for her birthday, which is bittersweet. A tumor is pressing on his brain, and it alters his behavior. At one point, he tells Amie he just wants to be alone, and she takes it personally, to the extent that she refuses to go to the hospital with her mother to visit. Of course, after this, her father goes into a coma and passes away. Amie gets through the funeral, but the fact that her father was so closely connected to her music makes it hard to play. Her mother wants to move on; establish routines, return to the 'normal', and clean out all of the father's possessions. This just makes Amie angry, and her mother does suggest counseling. It helps, but the difference between her way of grieving and her mother's exasperates Amie's own fragil mental state. Will she be able to come to terms with the loss of her beloved father in a way that will allow her, not to move on, but to continue on with her life while preserving her father's memory?
Strengths: There are plenty of books dealing with parents who are dying or who have died, and this was one of the more realistic ones. Chow herself lost her father at a young age, and this experience does make a huge different in the writing. The best part of this was the inclusion of lost of musical details, which often do not get addressed in middle grade literature, although there are plenty of tweens who are very invested in playing instruments or singing. I love that Rio was composing music. Amie and her mother have a good support network, and there are lots of details about baking as well. It was good to see that her mother didn't collapse into a puddle of grief, and that Amie was shown benefitting from counseling.
Weaknesses: Do people really burn that many cookies? I think people burn a lot more things in books than in real life. While Amie's grief took a very dramatic turn, it was realistic, but in a Blume's Deenie kind of way, where Deenie cuts off her hair. I don't want to spoil it, but given Amie's love of music, it was a tiny bit hard to believe. Certainly made for riveting reading.
What I really think: While there are far more deceased literary parents than actual parents, there have been a number of students I have known whose parents have fought cancer. This is a good addition to novels about this, like Swenden's Solving for M, Culley's The Natural Genius of Ants, Clark's Glitter Gets Everywhere, Lopez's Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel, and Pyros Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas.

[Beatriz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's such a wonderful novel about Aime, a violinist who shares her love of music with her father, who has cancer. She has such a big connection with him that when he passes, she is overwhelmed with grief and is unable to articulate her feelings. Her friends, Rio and Belle, complete her circle; they are the Harry Potter trio. They have read all the books and watched the movies multiple times. She's troubled with fear of losing their friendship and not knowing how to connect with her mom. Although she is taken to therapy, she's learning how to deal with her grief without having to lose those around her.
There is so much symbolism between music and her life. So touching, anyone who reads can feel the connection with Aime and her path as she heals.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a children's book, I did not expect for this to have such a powerful impact on me, but I couldn't have been more wrong. This book really hit home and at a very crucial time for me. Like the main character Amie, I lost my dad and the grieving process has been hard. You can tell that the author unfortunately understands this pain all too well because it resonates so well throughout the book. What I appreciate is that all different types of grief are portrayed, because it truly is an emotional roller coaster. I'm able to relate to Amie's confusion, anger, and sadness, but also her mother's ability to adapt and be strong for those you love. Even though this book was hard for me to read at times, I would highly recommend it.

[Noa Nimrodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was touched by Amie’s voice from the very beginning, and I knew right away I’d be crying before I reach the end.
Miracle unfolds a gentle and authentic exploration of grief, forgiveness and friendship.
Terms borrowed from music jargon beautifully serve as metaphors throughout the book giving depth and poetical resonance to the story.
Although Grief is portrayed honestly, a strong emphasis on Hope keeps the story in the realm of optimism all the way to the satisfying ending.
This is a book to be put in the hands of any kid dealing with a loss of a parent (and in the hands of their friends and support system).

[Jame_EReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Little Brown Young Readers for this won BookTruck kids’ books.

My son ran picked this out of the TBR pile and decided to read it after skimming through the blurb.

👦🏻 review: The beginning of the book is full of sadness and loss. I was feeling Amie’s frustration and I wouldn’t even wish that to my worst enemies. Amie’s loss and her pain to recover was becoming worse that it affected her violin skills. She couldn’t shake her depression off, but one day she realized that she needed to change. The story is sad but it also discussed about family relationship, friendships and love. This is another book that I love and hope children who are suffering from loss can read this.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amie has only known her father Ba-ba as a cancer patient. Maybe because of his illness, they have a special connection. That connection is made stronger through music. Amie is a talented violinist and Ba-ba is her biggest fan. When Ba-ba dies, Amie is especially angry when her mother seems ready to move on and make changes like getting rid of Ba-ba’s things. Worse, Amie has lost her ability to make beautiful music and is pushing her friends away. Will Amie get her sound back and figure out how to connect with her mother now that Ba-ba is gone? A powerful story about grief, friendship, family, and healing.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartwrenching and heartwarming, this touching novel shows us the power of music and friendship and love. I adored all the musical references and how music symbolizes emotion. Each chapter starts with a musical term and its definition. You will feel for Amie as she tries to deal with her beloved father's death from cancer. She's long played the violin, but after he dies, she can no longer play. The notes come out all wrong and scratchy. Eventually, therapy helps, as does talking to her mother and her best friends. I loved that this novel is therapy-positive. A moving novel about grief and music and healing.

[Julie Tieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

MIRACLE follows Amie as she navigates school while her father is dying of cancer. What connects them is their love of music. Amie plays the violin and orchestra is where her main support system exists.

As the story progresses, we see the big and complicated feelings Amie has as she experiences grief. I think it was well-written and incredibly vulnerable. It was hard not to cry while reading, but ultimately, this is a story about getting to the other side of grief. It's about leaning on others during the different seasons of your life and finding hope even when it seems hard.

[Matt McMann · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this beautifully written story about a talented young musician struggling to process the death of her father, Karen Chow hits deep emotional notes while maintaining a hopeful tone. The author’s personal knowledge of music is clear as she weaves a compelling narrative using musical terms as emotional metaphors. The characters are organic and realistic, and the writing is crisp, moving the story forward at the perfect pace. This book will help many people, young and old, learn how to process their grief and find their way to healing and hope. Highly recommended.

[Sarahs Reads ToKids · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really beautiful story about hope. How you have to have hope to get through the rough parts in life, even if not everyone makes it through the rough parts. It’s also story about grief and going through it and how not everyone grieves the same way.

While this story was beautiful, it was also really sad. I would recommend a middle grade reader read this story with an adult so the younger reader can ask questions or talk through parts if they need to. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a read aloud but a Buddy read could work too.

[Ben Oberholtzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story really hit a lot of interest points for me- I loved the mixing of music vocabulary with the events of each chapter. The friendships throughout the story were also much more realistically portrayed than many stories in this age range. I would recommend this story for anyone going through a tough time, or even kids who have an interest in music and instruments.

Aime was lucky to have a lot of people around her that loved her and cared for her- I wish all kids going through difficulty would be so well supported.

[Kristin Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read with my 13 year old niece after seeing the author together. We both enjoyed reading it and found it hard to put down towards the last quarter of the book.

Ms. Chow weaves a realistic and insightful story, exposing a painful and confusing experience of grief by the 6th grade protagonist.

I especially appreciated the story exposing the reader to non-threatening, patient and grace-filled counseling sessions. Seeing a counselor was normalized and the protagonist was helped through the experience.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saddest book this summer. A raw look at losing someone you love when the ending doesn’t go as you thought and surviving with the grief. Read chapters 1-2. When you know someone with a disease and they are approaching the end of their lives, you know the end is coming, but you’re never really ready for it. Amie’s final moments with her dad is not what she thought it would be and is no longer able to play her violin as well as make it though the days. Grief is the hardest emotion.

[Kimberly Chea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a beautiful work and will be a great read for middle schoolers. The story of loss and working through the grief is an important one, Karen Chow's tone accurately depicts this journey but it's never depressing. Love the themes of music and how this played into the central character's view of the entire world.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is sad, but so good. Karen Chow dares to delve into the complexities of parent illness and loss, and the grief that goes along with them while trying to navigate growing up. This topic is hard and complex and I liked seeing it handled so well in a book meant to be read by younger readers.